Plymouth memories of an octogenarian

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Plymouth Memories
of an Octogenarian

BY

WILLIAM T. DAVIS

Author of "History of Plymouth," "Ancient Landmarks of Plymouth," History of

"The Massachusetts Judiciary," History of "The Massachusetts Bar," etc.

Former President of the Pilgrim Society

Honorary Member of the Connecticut Historical Society

Honorary Member of the Old Colony Historical Society

•A tree that's severed from its root
Can bear no longer flowers or fruit;
A nation that forgets its past
Is without root and cannot last1

PBXHTID BT TBI XMMOKLLL FRBSS, FLTHOUTH, MASSACHUSETTS.

y^f /isi^

[

HARVARD

UNIVERSITY

LIBRARY

Copyrighted, 1906.

By Bittingee Bkothxks,

Plymouth, Mass.

PREFACE

By the death of every person something within the range of
his study and knowledge is lost beyond recovery. In publish-
ing this book of memories it is my desire to rescue from ob-
livion persons and events coming under my observation during
a long life, and to make a record of habits, customs and fashions
which have prevailed at different periods within my knowledge.
The book is not intended to be either in any sense an autobio-
graphy, or a mere collection of interesting reminiscences, but a
legacy which I wish to leave for the benefit of those coming af-
ter me. I cannot permit its publication without a grateful ac-
knowledgment of the service rendered during its preparation
by friends too numerous to be mentioned by name in contribut-
ing material essential to its approximate completeness and ac-
curacy.

Wm. T. Davis.

DEDICATION

/ dedicate this book to my children with the hope that they

will remember with love and pride their native town,

and be always ready to render it useful service.

JVM. T. DAVIS.

PLYMOUTH MEMORIES OF AN
OCTOGENARIAN

CHAPTER I.

Introductory.

In writing these memories I have in mind both the old and
the young. With the old I may perhaps clear away some of
the cobwebs which obscure their backward glance and reopen
to their vision vistas of the past. With the young I may
perhaps show how their fathers and grandfathers lived,
and how through the results of their careers, the comforts and
luxuries of the present generation have been evolved from the
simple habits and ways of living of those who have gone be-
fore. An important lesson may be learned by the young, that,
in this process of evolution, the achievements of today are only
the culmination of the continuous labors of earlier generations ;
that all we are, and all we know, came to us from our fathers ;
and that the wonderful inventions and discoveries of which we
boast, as if they were ours alone, would have been impossible
without the lessons taught by the inventors and discoverers
who blazed the way for our feet to tread.

Let me premise, without intending to enter the domain. of
history, by answering three questions, which, perhaps oftener
lhan any others, are asked by visitors, and by young Plymouth-
eans who are beginning to study the career of their native
town. The first question is — how and from whom did Plym-
outh receive its name ? This question has been somewhat con-
fused by the intimation of some writers that the name owes its
origin, at least in part, to the Pilgrims. The facts show con-
clusively that such is not the case. In 1614 John Smith ar-
rived on the coast of New England in command of an expedi-
tion fitted out under the patronage of Sir Ferdinando Gorges,
the Governor of the castle in old Plymouth. Anchoring his

8 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

extend southwards to the bounds of Sandwich town-
ship, and northward to the little brook falling into Black
Water from the commons left to Duxbury, and the neighbor-
hood thereabouts, and westward eight miles up into the lands
from any part of the bay or sea; always provided that the
bounds shall extend so far up into the woodlands as to include
the South Meadows toward Agawam, lately discovered, and
the convenient uplands thereabouts." But notwithstanding
all these references, it is enough to say that Plymouth was
settled in 1620, but never formally incorporated.

The third question is : What was the disease which carried
off one-half of the Plymouth Colony during the first four
months after the landing. In answer to this question only
plausible conjectures can be made. Various theories have
been suggested by medical men and others, but unfortunately
insufficient data as to the symptoms and general characteristics
of the epidemic have been handed down to us to enable any
definite diagnosis to be made. Some have suggested small-
pox, and some yellow fever, some cholera and some quick con-
sumption. Some also have raised the question whether the
germs of the disease, which swept off the Indians living in
Plymouth four or five years before, still lurking in the soil or
in vegetation, might not have retained sufficient vitality to de-
velop in the human system. This last suggestion would af-
ford little satisfaction, for the question would remain unsolved
as to the nature of the disease. After much thought given
to the matter, I have come to what I think is the most natural
conclusion, that the disease was what was well known in the
days of Irish immigration, before ocean steam navigation was
available, as ship fever. Many readers will remember that
packet ships and transient vessels were constantly arriving at
New York and Boston, crowded with immigrants — after long
passages from England, and that long confinement below deck
resulted frequently in the breaking out of ship fever and caused
serious mortality. The voyage of the Mayflower from South-
ampton to Cape Cod harbor was more than ninety days in
length, and during that time imperfect ventilation and inade-
quate nourishment in a vessel of only one hundred and eighty
tons, carrying within her walls one hundred and twenty crew

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 9

and passengers, must have furnished all the conditions neces-
sary for the presence of that terrible infection, which in our
own day was so fatal to the immigrants from Ireland.

Let me further premise, in closing this introductory chapter,
by saying that, of events occurring during a period of seventy-
five years, of the changes in the external character of Plym-
outh, and of the manners and customs and ways of living of
its people, I have a distinct recollection. Some of these, at a
still earlier period, I can imperfectly recall. For instance in
1825, when I was a few months more than three years of age,
my mother carried me on a visit to her father in Shelburne,
Nova Scotia, and while 1 recall nothing of the voyage made in
a fishing schooner on her way to the Grand Banks, the accur-
acy of my memory concerning many localities in Shelburne,
was confirmed on a visit to that place twenty-six years later in
1 85 1. My grandfather, Gideon White, a native of Plymouth,
and a descendant from Peregrine White, was a loyalist during
the revolution, and, holding a Captain's commission in the
British army, served with his regiment in Jamaica during the
war. With other loyalists he settled in Shelburne, where,
receiving the appointment of Provincial Judge, he afterwards
lived, making occasional visits to England, but none to the
United States, until his death in 1833. He married Deborah
Whitworth, the daughter of Miles Whitworth, a British Army
surgeon, and four of his children married in Boston and Plym-
outh and Cambridge, while a son graduated at Harvard in
1812.

I remember, too, that at the age of four, in 1826, I was car-
ried to my first school. It was kept by Mrs. Martha Weston,
who was known as Mrs. Patty, or more generally Ma'am Wes-
ton, the widow of Coomer Weston, and grandmother of our
townsman, Myles S. Weston, in the house on North street, the
third below that of Miss Dr. Pierce, not long since occupied
by Wm. W. Brewster. I remember well the school room, its
sanded floor and the cricket on which I sat. From that dear
old lady, with a pleasant smile and kindly voice, I first tasted
the "sweet food of kindly uttered knowledge." She died July
27, 1841, and but few of her scholars can now be left to join
with me in blessing her memory.

IO PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

CHAPTER II.

Before proceeding to a general consideration of the streets
and ways of Plymouth, and their changes, this is a fitting place
to refer to an important alteration, in one of its chief highways,
which, though occurring during my life time, is a little beyond
the scope of my memory. In ancient times the route from
Plymouth to Sandwich was through the district of "half way
ponds," which thus received its name. When a stage line
between the two towns was established the route ran through
Chiltonville, leaving Bramhall's corner on the right, and pass-
ing over Eel River bridge, turned to the right and by a diagon-
al course reached a point on the present road near the estate of
Mr. Jordan. At that time the road through Clark's valley
by the cotton factory extended no farther south than the cross
roads leading to the Russell Mills on the west, and by the old
Edes & Wood factory on the east.

In 1825 this road was extended, making a junction with the
old road, and thus establishing the present Plymouth and Sand-
wich highway.

In 1830 there were in Plymouth, north of Bramhall's corner
in Chiltonville, seventeen streets so called, thirteen lanes, three
squares, nine places and ways, and four alleys, concerning all
of which something will be said in their order. The streets
were Court, Howland, Main, North, Water, Middle, Leyden,
School, Market, Spring, High, Summer, Pleasant, Sandwich,
Commercial, Green and South streets. Court street, which
took its present name by a vote of the town in 1823, owes its
origin to no formal laying out. It practically followed the old
Massachusetts path, and was a way of necessity gradually
evolved from a footway, and bridle path, and cart way to its
present condition. There is a tradition, which needs confirma-
tion, that opposite the head of the present Murray street, it
once made a detour to the west through the valley in the rear
of the houses of Mr. Charles G. Hathaway and others, and
came out into the present road at some point beyond Cold

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. II

Spring. There seems to have been no necessity for such a de-
tour, and no available route for it to pursue, and I am inclined
to the belief that the tradition is unfounded. There is another
tradition, which may also be distrusted, that Tinker's Rock
Spring, now known as Cold Spring, was removed by an earth-
quake in 1755 from the east to the west side of the street, where
it now flows. There can be no doubt that it once flowed on
the east side, but I was told by Mr. John Kempton Cobb, who
always lived in the neighborhood of the spring, and would be
now, if he were living, one hundred and nineteen years of age,
that it was moved by owners of a pasture on the west side to
supply water for their cattle. Within my own knowledge for
many years the water after it left the pipe, turned into and oujt
of the pasture referred to, before it crossed the street and
passed through the Nelson field on its way to the harbor.
When the trench was opened in 1904 for the purpose of lay-
ing a sewer, I noticed that the water f rom the site of the old
spring on the east side was conveyed to the present outlet,
through a pipe laid across the street, for which the story of the
earthquake would fail to account. The boundaries of Court
street, notwithstanding widenings and straightenings in va-
rious places, have remained practically as they were in 1830,
except in two places. Until 1851, at what is now the head of
Murray street, there was a watering place on the east side,
through which teams were driven to water their horses. In
the above year the easterly line of the street was straightened,
and the old watering place thrown into the adjoining lots.
The brook at this place was called "second brook" by the Pil-
grims, the "first brook" being that which in my boyhood was
called "Shaw's brook," and which flows, or recently did flow,
between the houses of Mrs. Helen F. Hedge and Mr. Ripley,
through pipes under the brick block to the harbor. The
above mentioned "second brook" flows from a spring just
within the lot on the west side of the street, and the bridge
over it was long ago the terminus of the evening walks of lov-
ing couples who, as they turned for home formally re-
christened the bridge in the most natural way as "Kissing
bridge." The other place where the street underwent an im-
portant change was at the corner of North street, which in

12 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

1892 was cut off to meet the necessities of travel then increas-
ed by the recent construction of the street railway.

The greatest change which Court street has passed through
in my day, has been brought about by the rows of elm trees
along its sidewalks, all of which have been set out since 1830,
and most of them as far as Cold Spring by the late Andrew L.
Russell, to whose public spirit the town is chiefly indebted for
one of its crowning glories. In the above year the only

shade trees within the bounds of Main and Court streets, be-
tween Town Square and Cold Spring, were two ash trees in
front of the house on the southerly corner of North street.
North of the trees set out by Mr. Russell were the old mile
tree, which stood in front of the estate of the late Joab Thomas,
and the trees beyond the estate of Mrs. Knapp, for which the
town is indebted to the late Leavitt T. Robbins, father of our
late townsman of the same name. The mile tree was struck
by lightning in 1829, and not long after was blown down and
replaced by that now standing. The beauty which these trees
have added to the town, even lending grace and ornament to
the many houses of ordinary styles of architecture along Court
street, suggests a remark made many years ago by John Quincy
Adams, while walking with a friend one bleak cloudy day in
March, in reply to his companion who had expressed a wonder
that the Pilgrims settled here. "Oh," Mr. Adams answered,
"you must remember that there were no houses here then."
Mr. Adams must have been another Jonathan who

"Said he could not see the town
There were so many houses."

Howland street was laid out August 6, 1728, by Thomas
Howland, through his land, and by deed of that date, under
the name of Howland street, was dedicated to public use. For
more than a hundred years it extended only as far as the pres-
ent westerly line of the Gas works land, though originally laid
out to the shore, but on the tenth of September, 1859, it was
formally laid out in accordance with the original intent of Mr.
Howland.

Main street, once called Hanover street, like Court street,
was one of the original ways, not formally laid out, but from
time to time changed along its lines. The first important

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 13

change was effected May 26, 185 1, by straightening the wester-
ly line from the corner of the land now owned by Wm. P. Stod-
dard, to the Plymouth Bank Building. Up to that time the
Thomas house, now the Plymouth tavern, had a front yard per-
haps twenty feet deep, and the law office of Wm. Thomas was
on the southeast corner of the lot. Next south of the Thomas
house and land, was an old house built out to the Thomas line,
and both estates were cut off at the above date, thus establish-
ing the present line of the street. Another important change
was made August 3, 1886, by running a new line on the wester-
ly side from the bank to Town Square, moving all the buildings
back to the line, and giving the street at the narrowest point
between Middle and Leyden streets, a width of fifty-eight feet
seven inches. Its present name of Main street was adopted
by the town in 1823. Middle street was laid out August 6,
*725> by Jonathan Bryant, Consider Howland, Isaac Little and
Mayhew Little, owners of the land "for and in consideration of
the public good, and for the more regular and uniform situa-
tion of the town of Plymouth, and to be forever hereafter call-
ed King street." At the time of the revolution it informally
received its present name, which was finally adopted by the
town in 1823, and on the 6th of March, 1899, it was widened
to its present width. The way from the foot of the street to
Water street, which for the purposes of this narrative, may be
considered a part of the street, was laid out September 21,
1768, and May 13, 1807.

Two remarkable coincidences have occurred in connection
with Middle street. In the early part of the 18th century one
of the Bryant family kept a tavern on the corner of Main and
Middle streets, which is called on the records Bryant's tavern,
and in 1834 Danville Bryant kept a tavern on the same site.
The other coincidence relates to the third Parish, which was
established in Middle street, and built a meeting house in 1744,
where the house occupied by Mr. Frink now stands. Rev.
Thomas Frink of Rutland, Vt., was settled as its pastor, and
more than a hundred years later our present townsman, bearing
the same name, came to Plymouth, and now lives on the same
site. These coincidences are constantly occurring as if men
were mere puppets following unconsciously certain predestin-

14 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

ed lines. When the Plymouth Woolen Mill went into opera-
tion about 1865, a Scotchman by the name of Fernside was
employed as a wool sorter. After the manufacture of flan-
nels was abandoned he bought and settled on land in Duxbury,
which a man of the same name occupied more than two hun-
dred years before. A story of what perhaps may be called a
coincidence, was told me by our townsman Wm. Burns. He
came from Scotland, and on his arrival between 1850 and i860,
was employed in the Cordage Company's store at Seaside.
One day a man drove up to the store, and as he alighted, Mr.
Burns said to him, "Good morning, Mr. Glass, — when did
you come over?" "What do you mean by coming
over?" replied the man. "Why, from Scotland," said
Mr. Burns. "I never was in Scotland, my ancestors have
lived in Duxbury since about 1640." "Is not your name
Glass?" continued Mr. Burns. "Yes," said the man.
"Why, I thought you were Mr. Glass, a neighbor of
mine in Scotland," said Mr. Burns. This may, however, not
have been a coincidence, but a remarkable perpetuation of a
family type. I have had in my own experience more than
one illustration of the descent of family types, through many
generations, one of which recently occurred. A stranger met me
in the street and asked me if I was Mr. Davis. I said, "Yes,
and your name is Howland." "How do you know that ?" he
asked, "I have never seen you before." I said, "I know by
your hand with its web fingers," instances of which I have
known in five generations of the family of Henry Howland,
one of the early members of the Plymouth Colony. It is true
that he might have descended from a female Howland, and
thus borne another name, but I was right in calling him by
that name.

North street was laid out in 1633, and at various times was
called New street, Queen street, Howland street and North
street, which last name was adopted by the town in 1823. The
upper half of the street, on its northerly side, has been changed
since 1830 by the erection of the following houses ; that of Dr.
Brown, built in 1833 by Jacob Covington, on the site of the old
Marcy house ; the next house built in 1830 by Rev. Frederick
Freeman, the pastor of the Trinitarian Congregational church ;
the easterly addition of the house of the late Edward L. Barnes

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 15

on the site of the house of Capt. William Rogers, and the
house now occupied by Isaac M. Jackson, built about 1850, by
Thomas T. Jackson, on the site of a house, which within my
memory, was occupied by William Morton Jackson, and Rich-
ard Bagnall and others.

On the upper half of the street on the southerly side the fol-
lowing houses have been built since 1830; that built in 1838 by
Ebenezer G. Parker, the cashier of the Old Colony Bank, and
now occupied by the Misses Russell ; that built in 1832 by Mrs.
Betsey H. Hodge, recently occupied by Mrs. Thomas B. Drew ;
that occupied by Benjamin A. Hathaway, and built by Abra-
ham Jackson on the site of one previously occupied by him,
which was built about 1745 by Colonel George Watson; and
finally the public library building built by the heirs of William
G. Russell and Mary Ellen, his wife, on a part of the old Jack-
son land.

On the lower half of the street there have been several
changes in its boundaries. From the way leading to the oil
works, as Winslow street was called, at a point in front of the
Willoughby house, there was for many years a way with steps
running easterly and reaching the street below at an acute
angle, thus breaking the continuity of the stone wall bounding
the street. About 1858, while I was chairman of the select-
men, the board discontinued this way, and rebuilt the wall on
a continuous line.

On the other side of the street there was another way with
steps at its upper and lower ends opening opposite the norther-
ly door of the Plymouth Rock House, and reaching the street
below immediately above the house which stood on the corner
of Water street. This way has also been discontinued by the
selectmen. Through my youth a row of balm of Gilead trees
stood below the wall extending from the elm tree in front of
the house of Mrs. Ruth H. Baker to the way above mention-
ed. The Linden tree standing on the corner of Cole's Hill,
has an interesting romance associated with it. The tree was
planted by a youthful couple as a memorial of their engage-
ment, and when not long afterwards, in 1809, the engagement
was discontinued, and the memorial was no longer prized by
the lady in whose garden it had been planted, she one day pull-

l6 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

ed it up, and threw it into the street. My father, who hap-
pened to pass at the time, picked it up and planted it where it
now stands. He lived in the house now known as the Plym-
outh Rock House, where he died in 1824, and under his care-
ful nursing it survived its treatment, and has grown into the
beautiful tree, now blessing so many with its grateful shade.
In that house I was born in 1822, and lived until I was more
than twenty years of age, and hundreds of times I have climb-
ed the branches of the Linden, often with book in hand, seek-
ing shelter from the summer sun.

North street received a new laying out February n, 1716,
and still another on the 7th of October, 1765, and after the es-
tates on Water street below Cole's Hill had been bought by the
Pilgrim Society in 1856, and other dates, land was thrown out
by the society, and the corner rounded.

So far as the houses on the lower half of North street are
concerned, several changes have occurred since 1830. In my
boyhood the double house now partly occupied by Miss Cath-
erine Kendall, was a single house, occupied by the widow of
Edward Taylor, who was then the wife of John Blaney Bates,
whom she married in 1807. After the death of Mrs. Bates
and her husband, whom I well remember, Jacob and Abner
Sylvester Taylor, sons of Mrs. Bates, remodelled the house
and divided it into two tenements. John Blaney Bates, the
second husband of Mrs. Taylor, was one of the most skilful
masons and master builders in southeastern Massachusetts, and
was largely engaged in enterprises in other towns. He built
the Plymouth Court House in 1820, the Barnstable Court
House, and as many as eight or ten brick or stone dwelling
houses on Summer street and Winthrop Place in Boston. A
contract to build a house of hammered stone for George Bond
in Winthrop Place, proved a disastrous one, and terminated his
business career. After the failure of Whitwell and Bond, the
house referred to was sold to Henry Cabot, the grandfather of
Henry Cabot Lodge, and occupied by him until Winthrop
Place was extended to Franklin street, and made a part of the
present Devonshire street. Mr. Bates, as I remember him,
was in his later days an inveterate sportsman, and would often
spend hours behind an ice hummock, when the harbor was par-

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. VJ

tially frozen, waiting for a possible shot at ducks in a sheet of
open water near by. He died in 1831.

His stepsons, the Taylor brothers, who learned their ma-
son's trade with him, also became skilful workmen and con-
tractors in Plymouth and neighboring towns. In 1824 they
built Pilgrim Hall for the Pilgrim Society, and Mr. Taylor
told me that when they signed the contract in July, the stone
was lying undisturbed in a virgin rock on the easterly side of
Queen Ann's turnpike in Weymouth, and the timber stood un-
cut in the forests of Maine. So expeditiously, however, was
the work performed that the hall was occupied by the Society
at the anniversary celebration in the following December.

The house next east of the Taylor house was built in 1829 by
the Messrs. Taylor on land of the Taylor estate. The Taylors
had completed in that year their contract to build Long wharf
and, having considerable material left, they put it into this
house. I remember hearing it said that the partitions, and
perhaps the walls, were constructed of some of the plank used
in covering the wharf, and were consequently unusually solid
and firm. The story was told that when Deacon Wm. P. Rip-
ley, who bought the house, went to inspect it, he was told by
one of the brothers that the partitions were so impervious to
sound that conversation could not be heard f ran room to room.
To confirm his statement he invited the Deacon to test it. Af-
ter the doors were closed, the Deacon in one room and Mr.
Taylor in another, the former called out loudly — "Do you
hear?" and the answer "No," came promptly back. The Dea-
con evidently was willing to take Mr. Taylor's word, thus
confirmed, and bought the house. Deacon Ripley, son of Na-
thaniel and Elizabeth (Bartlett) Ripley, was born in Plymouth
in 1775, and after his first marriage in 1805, owned and occu-
pied the house on Summer street, which after 1845 was owned
and occupied by Benjamin Hathaway. He kept a dry goods
store in that house many years, and after the sale of the house
in 1833 to the heirs of Robert Dunham, the store was occupied
by the millinery establishment of Mrs. Thomas Long, one of
the heirs. After giving up the store, Deacon Ripley entered
into a partnership with his son-in-law, Andrew S. March, in
Boston, under the firm name of Ripley & March, 21 Central

l8 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

street, but finally returned to Plymouth and took the store
afterwards occupied by Southworth Barnes, on the site of the
present Sherman block. He died November 10, 1842, and in
the next year the house on North street was sold to Phineas
Wells, to whom reference will be hereafter made.

Within my recollection no persons have been universally
called Deacons, irrespective of their church connections, be-
sides Deacon Ripley and Deacon John Hall. The latter was
many years Deacon of the Baptist church, and was a farmer
living at the corner of Court and Hall streets, where he raised
a family of sons, well known by the last generations as indus-
trious, useful and worthy citizens.

In his church he was the supervisor of every act. I remem-
ber that on one occasion the minister announced from the pul-
pit that on the next Thursday evening "the Lord willing, there
will be a prayer meeting in this house, the weather permitting,
if Deacon Hall has no objections, and on Friday evening,
whether or no."

In middle life the Deacon bought a sloop and employed her
in fishing, and in taking fishing parties into the bay. He scorn-
ed the fishing ledges generally resorted to, such as the Offer
ledge, the House ledge, Faunce's ledge and the Thrum Caps,
and fished on ledges of his own, the bearings of which he kept
to himself. I was with him once, one of a party of ten, and
before ten o'clock, the party caught one hundred and sixty
cod and one hundred and forty haddock. In those days had-
dock were thought an inferior fish, and were difficult to dis-
pose of in the Plymouth market at one cent a pound. In fact,
they were not even dignified by the name of "fish," and I re-
member hearing a servant ordered to get a fish at the fish
market, and if he could not get a fish, to get a haddock.

But some critical person found worms between the flakes
of a codfish, and then another discovered that a haddock made
a superior fry, and still another that in a chowder the flesh
of a haddock was firmer than that of a codfish, and finally
both came to be held in equal estimation. In my early days no
lover of salt cod would eat anything but dunfish, and Deacon
Hall was the only person in Plymouth, who cured them,
Swampscott being generally looked to for a supply. They re-

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 19

ceived their name from their dun color, which was of a red-
dish brown. They were caught in the spring, slack salted,
and when partially dry, piled in a dark room covered with sea-
weed. After several weeks they were repiled, and after
several weeks more, they were ready to be eaten.

In my mother's day short, thick fish were selected for the
table, and every Saturday three were served with a napkin
above and below, the upper one being removed to the kitchen,
and the middle one eaten, while the other two supplied minced
fish for Sunday's breakfast, and the Monday washing day
dinner. A slice of dunfish cut up with potatoes, beets, carrots
and onions, well covered with pork scraps and sweet oil, judi-
ciously peppered, makes a dinner, which, with the white salt
fish of today, it is impossible to prepare. Fish balls were not
in vogue in my early days, but gradually took the place of
mince fish, especially Sunday morning. Baked beans, now
improperly called distinctively a New England dish, were
according to my recollection, unknown in Plymouth, and were
associated exclusively with Beverly, whose people were called
Beverly beaners. A story was told of a vessel at sea running
down to a schooner in distress, and finding that she was from
Beverly, and out of beans. The first dish of baked beans I
ever saw, was on a club dining table in Cambridge, after I
entered college in 1838.

Deacon Hall understood the art of making a chowder as
well as that of curing dunfish, or if his fishing party preferred
a muddle, that is, a chowder with no potatoes and less liquor,
he was equally skilful. Real lovers of fish and seafaring men
I have generally found liked the muddle, as perhaps the fol-
lowing incident will attest. Capt. Ignatius Pierce, a man of
dry humor, spent a number of years in California, never in-
timating in his letters any intention of an immediate return
home. His wife, about nine o'clock one morning, received a
telegram from him in Boston, merely saying, "have a muddle
for dinner."

The good Deacon would have been amused at the following
description of the ingredients of a genuine New England
chowder by a professor of modern languages in the University
of Virginia, in a work published by him in 1872, "A many

20 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

sided dish of pork and fish, potatoes and bread, onions and
turnips all mixed up with fresh chequits and seabass, black
fish and long clams, pumpkinseed, and an accidental eel, well
peppered and salted, piled up in layers, and stewed together."
If such a dish as that had been placed before the Deacon he
would in a changed form have followed the directions for
cooking a coot — to wit, shoot your coot, pick it, parboil it, stuff
it, roast it, baste it, and then throw it away.

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 21

CHAPTER III.

During my early life a house stood in North street between
the house of Mrs. Ruth H. Baker and the present Plymouth
Rock House, concerning the occupants of which I must say a
word. It was a double house, the westerly end of which was
occupied by Ebenezer Drew, his wife Deborah, or Aunt Deb-
by, as she was called, and his brother Malachi. Ebenezer had
no children and Malachi was a bachelor. They were the salt
of the earth and the salt had not lost its savor. Without the
three it would have been difficult for some of the neighbors,
including my mother, to keep house. Malachi repaired the
leaks in the roof, eased the doors, mended the chairs and kept
the house generally in running order. Uncle Eben did the
chores, fed and scratched the pig, sawed, split and piled the
wood and wheeled our corn to the mill, taking care that Syl-
vanus Maxim, the miller, did not take out too much toll. In
those days, every family bought or raised its own corn and
sent it to the mill to be ground. When the steamboat arrived,
if one happened to be running, Eben was always on the wharf
with his handcart ready to take the luggage of passengers to
their homes. I can see the old man now scraping with his jack-
knife the apples I occasionally gave him, which, with his loss
of teeth, he could neither bite nor chew. He died January 6,
1851, at the age of 77 years.

But chief of "the blessed three" was Aunt Debby. She as-
sisted in making soap and candles, would nurse the sick, diag-
nose the various diseases of children, such as measles, by their
smell, administer picra and "yarb" tea; staunch the blood of a
cut finger with cobwebs and with the buds of the balsam pop-
lar, or balm of Gilead, heal the wound. She was the forerunner,
too, of those who with no more accuracy than she exhibited,
foretell the number of a winter's snow storms. In my college
vacation my first visit was always to her, and at Thanksgiving
time it was often my privilege to bear a turkey and a couple
of pies to her scanty board. She died April 15, 1844, at the
age of 72. Peace to her ashes.

22 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

The easterly part of the house was occupied by William
Collingwood, a worthy and intelligent Englishman, the father
of our respected townsmen, George and James Bartlett Col-
lingwood. He had been a manufacturer of pottery in Sunder-
land, in the shire of Durham, but owing to reverses he was
induced to come to America, and took passage in 1819 with
Capt. Plasket of Nantucket, bringing with him his wife Elea-
nor (Harrow) Collingwood and two sons, George and Wil-
liam, one year old. He settled in Nantucket, the home of Capt.
Plasket, where he remained until 1825, when James Bartlett,
who, with others, owned two ships in the whale fishery, in-
duced him to come to Plymouth and take charge of the oil and
candle works then recently established, which were situated
between the house of the late Jesse R. Atwood and the shore.
As long as the works remained in operation he was at their
head, and afterwards for a time kept a restaurant at the corner
of North and Water streets. He died in Plymouth in 1866,
at the age of 76, and his wife died in 1884, at the age of 90.
Three of Mr. Collingwood's sons died in the civil war. Joseph
W., born in Nantucket January 5, 1822, was captain in Com-
pany H, 18th Massachusetts regiment, and died in a field hos-
pital December 24, 1862, of wounds received at the battle of
Fredericksburg on the 13th of that month. John B., born
December 30, 1825, was adjutant of the 29th Massachusetts
regiment and died in St. John's Hospital in Cincinnati, August
21, 1863. Thomas, born November 10, 1831, was a corporal
in Company E, 29th Massachusetts regiment, and died at Camp
Banks, Crab Orchard, Ky., August 31, 1863.

In 1843 Mrs. Collingwood was summoned to England to
secure by identification an inheritance of property. She had
then reached middle life, but, nevertheless, without a com-
panion or attendant, she sailed cm the 1st of July in the above
year in the Cunard steamer Columbia, from Boston for Hali-
fax and Liverpool. The Columbia, like all the earliest boats
of the Cunard line, was a paddle wheel boat of about 1,200
tons. I know very well what those boats were, for I made a
passage in the Hibernia of the same line in March, 1847, and
I often wonder that in such small crafts, with one wheel buried
in every roll of the sea, passengers were willing to expose

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 23

themselves to the hazards of a winter passage. On Sunday,
the second day out, when 240 miles from Boston, while still
in charge of the pilot who, in accordance with the custom pre-
vailing while the steamers called at Halifax, remained on
board, the Columbia, in a thick fog, having been carried out of
her course by an unusual Bay of Fundy current, struck a
sloping rock on Black Ledge about a mile and a quarter from
Seal Island, and 25 miles from Barrington, Nova Scotia, the
nearest port on the mainland. Fortunately the sea was smooth
and when the fog lifted a fishing schooner nearby came to the
ship and with the boats of the steamer transferred to the island
the passengers, 95 in number, including those in the steerage,
and 73 officers and men, with luggage and the mails. The
cargo was eventually saved, but the ship was a total loss.
While on the island a sort of colonial government was estab-
lished with Mr. Abbot Lawrence of Boston, one of the pas-
sengers at its head, to prevent excsses and possible disturb-
ance, and a passing vessel was sent to Halifax with news of
the wreck. In due time the steamer Margaret took them to
that port, most of the passengers and crew continuing their
passage in her to Liverpool. For the kindness and attention
shown to Mrs. Collingwood by Mr. Lawrence she was always
grateful. The valet of Mr. Lawrence was James Burr, a col-
ored boy from Plymouth, who often with pride recounted to
me the story of his adventure.

It is a little singular that our townsman, Robert Swinburn,
recently deceased at an advanced age, came to Plymouth when
a young man from Sunderland, the town in which Mr. Col-
lingwood lived, and where he also was engaged in the em-
ployment of a potter, and should twenty years later than the
voyage of Mrs. Collingwood have been also summoned to
England for the purpose of obtaining an inheritance. A cir-
cumstance connected with the loss of the Columbia, which re-
minds us of the changes which have occurred in the facilities
of communication, is the fact that the news of the wreck,
which occurred on Sunday, the 2d of July, did not reach Bos-
ton until Sunday, the 9th.

I have given the loss of the Columbia a prominence in these
memories because it was the only loss which the Cunard com-

24 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

pany has suffered during its career of 64 years, except that of
the Oregon, a steamer sold to the company by another line
after a collision and a transfer of her passengers to another
vessel, which foundered near Fire Island. Two other ocean
steamers had been previously lost, the President, with all on
board, in 1841, and the West India packet steamer Solway,
off Corunna, in April, 1843, with her captain and fifty lives.

Returning from this digression to North street, from which
I have wandered long and far, I wish to correct a statement,
based on misinformation, made by me in "Ancient Landmarks
of Plymouth," that the Willoughby house, built by Edward
Winslow in 1755, was confiscated. Mr. Winslow held the
office of collector of the port of Plymouth, registrar of wills
and clerk of the superior court of common pleas, and the
salaries from these offices, though he was not a rich man,
enabled him to live in luxury and ease. He was generous to
the poor and lavish in his entertainment of families in the aris-
tocratic circles. He was a loyalist of the most pronounced
type, and consequently lost his offices at the breaking out of
the revolution. As nearly as I can learn from family records
he remained in Plymouth several years, evidently assisted by
friends, some of whom in a quiet way shared his loyalty to the
king. In December, 1781, he reached the British garrison in
New York with a part of his family, the remainder joining
him at a later period. Sir Henry Qinton allowed him a pen-
sion of £200 per annum, with rations and fuel. On the 30th
of August, 1783, he embarked with his wife, two daughters
and three colored servants from New York and arrived at
Halifax on the 14th of September. He died in Halifax the
next year, 70 years of age. The house in question was taken
on execution by his creditors, consisting of the town of Plym-
outh, Thomas Davis, William Thomas, Oakes Angier and
John Rowe, and in 1782, 1789, 1790 and 1791 it was sold by
the above parties to Thomas Jackson. In 1813 it passed under
an execution from Thomas Jackson to his cousin, Charles
Jackson, the father of the late Dr. Charles T. Jackson and Mrs.
Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Edward Winslow, son of the above, graduated in Harvard
in 1765, and at the time of the revolution was naval officer of

OF AN OCTOQENARIAN. 25

the port of Plymouth and held the offices of clerk of the court
and register of probate jointly with his father. He joined the
British army in Boston and went with Lord Percy on his
disastrous expedition to Lexington and Concord, and was later
appointed by Gen. Gage collector of Boston and register of
probate for Suffolk county. At the evacuation of Boston,
March 17, 1776, he went with the army to Halifax, where he
was made by Sir William Howe secretary of the board of gen-
eral officers, of which Lord Percy was president, for the dis-
tribution of donations to the troops. He afterwards went to
New York and was appointed muster master general of the
forces, and acted in that capacity during the war. In 1779 he
was chosen by refugees in Rhode Island to command them,
and served during two campaigns. After the war he was mili-
tary secretary until the death of his father, and in 1785 went
to New Brunswick, where he held the positions of king's coun-
sellor and paymaster of contingencies, and died in 1815.

In the Winslow house above referred to Ralph Waldo
Emerson married, August 22, 1835, Lydia Jackson, daughter
of Charles and Lucy (Cotton) Jackson. I have a distinct
recollection of the first time I ever saw Mr. Emerson, and I
have no doubt that it was the first time he ever visited Plym-
outh. It was, I feel sure, in 1833, soon after he left the pulpit
of the Second Unitarian church in Boston and after he had
begun his career as a lecturer. It is said that his first lecture
was delivered before the Boston Mechanics Institute on the
very practical subject of "Water/* At the time referred to
he lectured in Pilgrim Hall on Socrates, and was the guest of
Nathaniel Russell, whose daughter, Mary Howland Russell,
born in 1803, was an intimate friend of Lydia Jackson, born in
1802-. I believe that I am justified in assuming that on that
visit he first saw his future wife. I remember well his appear-
ance and manners on the lecture platform, and as a boy of
eleven years I thought him oracular and dull. In the same
year the wandering piper with his kilt and bagpipe appeared
also in Pilgrim Hall, and Potter, the ventriloquist, entertained
audiences by swallowing swords, and I am almost afraid to
say that the exhibitions gave me more pleasure than the lec-
ture. But my eyes had not at that early age been opened.

26 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

Dr. Holmes once asked an English gentleman to whom he had
just been introduced, how he liked America, and on receiving
the reply that he had been in the contry only nine days, told
him that a pup required only nine days to open its eyes. But
the doctor never hesitated to sacrifice courtesy for the sake of
a joke, as the following story will further show: Hearing one
evening at a party the name of a gentleman present, whom he
had never seen before, he asked him if he were a relative of
an apothecary of that name, and on receiving the answer that
he was his son, he told him that he thought he recognized in
his face the 'liniments" of his father. But to return to Mr.
Emerson, my eyes have been opened.

In concluding the changes which have occurred in North
street within my recollection, it only remains to be said that
the Manter building on the corner of Water street was re-
moved in 1859 from Pilgrim wharf, and stands on land form-
erly occupied by a tenement house, and by a small one-story
building occupied by Thomas Maglathlen.

Water street, including its extension, was laid out by va-
rious acts of the town, as follows: On the 16th of Feb-
ruary, 1715, in 1762, on the 4th of April, 1881, the 9th of De-
cember, 1893, and the 22d of June, 1895. The changes on the
extension of the street, caused by the erection of the woolen
mill of Mr. Mabbett, the utilization of the old Jackson lumber
yard by Mr. Craig and the erection of the Brockton and Plym-
outh trolley electric plant, have been so recent that no refer-
ence to them is necessary. With the exception of the foun-
dry, which was built to take the place of the foundry burned
in 1856, and the electric light building on the corner of Ley-
den street, no new structure has changed in my day the gen-
eral character of the street.

In my youth, and later, there were eight buildings on the
westerly side of the street between North street and the steps
at the foot of Middle street. In the rear of these houses
there were two terraces supported by stone walls, and some
of the houses were entered by flights of steps leading down
from the top of the hill. In 1856, and in the years immed-
iately succeeding, the Pilgrim Society bought all these estates,
and after the removal of the houses graded the slope as it is
seen today. The granite steps from the surface of the hill

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 27

to the canopy over the Rock was built by private subscription.
The graded bank is the property of the Pilgrim Society, and
the surface of the hill, which belongs to the town, was placed
by a vote of the town under the superintendence and care of
the society.

r, Until recently there were also eight buildings between the
way leading to the Middle street steps and the grass bank
on Leyden street. By the will of J. Henry Stickney of Bal-
timore, who died May 3, 1893, the sum of $21,000 was given
to a board of trustees for the purpose of buying and remov-
ing these houses and grading the bank. The board of trus-
tees consists of the chairman of the selectmen, the presidents
of the two national banks, the president and secretary of the
Pilgrim Society, the president of the Plymouth Savings Bank,
and the judge of probate and treasurer of Plymouth county,
and their successors in said offices. All the estates have
been bought except that owned by Winslow Brewster Stand-
ish, and the grading as far as practicable has been done.

The only remaining change in the street to be referred to is
that associated with Pilgrim wharf and the Rock. Until 1859
the wharf was devoted to commercial uses. In that year the
upper part of the wharf came into the possession of the Pil-
grim Society, and the building which had stood on the north-
erly corner of the wharf was moved to the corner of Water
and North streets, and eventually came into the possession of
Mr. Manter, its present occupant.

Two buildings on the south side, between the wharf and
the store of Mr. Atwood, were also bought by the society and
removed. That on the corner had for many years been occu-
pied in its lower story by a cooper shop and in its upper story
by the sail loft of Daniel Goddard, and the other had been oc-
cupied as a store successively by Richard Holmes, Holmes &
Scudder, Holmes & Brewster and John Churchill.

In 1883 the Pilgrim Society bought the entire wharf, and
after removing the store houses standing on it fitted it for
a steamboat landing exclusively. The corner stone of the
canopy over the Rock was laid on the 2d of August, 1859, and
the structure was completed in 1867. It was designed by
Hammatt Billings, but follows very closely the plan of the
Arch of Trajan built on one of the moles of the harbor of

28 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

Ancona on the shores of the Adriatic. The use of scallop
shells on its top was suggested by the fact that this shell was
the emblem worn by the Pilgrims on their way to the Holy
Land. The word Pilgrim, as applied to the Plymouth colo-
nists, was never used, as far as I can learn, for more than a
hundred and seventy years after the landing. They were
called "first-comers" and "forefathers" until 1794, when Judge
John Davis, in his ode written for the anniversary celebration
in that year first used the word "Pilgrim" in the following
verse :

"Columbia, child of heaven,
The best of blessings given,

Be thine to greet;
Hailing this votive day,
Looking with fond survey,
Upon the weary way,

Of Pilgrim feet."

The next use of the word was made by Samuel Davis in a
hymn written by him for the celebration in 1799, the ^TSt
verse of which is as follows :

"Hail Pilgrim fathers of our race!

With grateful hearts your toils we trace.
Again this votive day returns
And finds us bending o'er your urns."

The word was undoubtedly suggested to Judge Davis by
a casual remark of Governor Bradford in his history of
Plymouth Plantation expressing the regret of the colonists at
leaving Leyden, as follows : "But they knew they were Pil-
grims, and looked not much on those things but lifted up their
eyes to the heavens, their dearest country, and so quieted their
spirits." The first use of the scallop shell associated with
the Plymouth Pilgrims was at the anniversary celebration in
1820, when at the ball in the evening some young ladies hung
a shell suitably decorated on the breast of Mr. Webster, the
orator of the day. It simply expresses the sentiment that
man is a wayfarertravellingtoward another and a better world.
I have seen it somewhere stated that it was worn by the Pil-
grims returning from the Holy Land, and if such is the case as
the scallop is abundant on the shores of the Mediterranean, it
may have been adopted to attest their pilgrimage. In the
chamber of the canopy are deposited four skeletons of Pilgrims

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 29

buried in the winter of i6ao-i on Cole's Hill, which were dis-
covered in 1854 by workmen digging a trench for laying wa-
ter pipes in Carver street, a little south of the foot of Middle
street.

Before concluding what I have to say concerning Water
street with its business, its stores and their occupants, I wish
to refer more particularly to Plymouth Rock and its history,
to supply necessary links in the chain of my narrative. Its
first public recognition as the landing place of the Pilgrims oc-
curred in 1742, after a grant had been made to individuals by
the town of a strip of land extending from the top of Cole's
Hill to low water mark, for the purpose of building a wharf.
Thomas Faunce, the third elder of the Plymouth church, born
in 1647, was ten years old when Governor Bradford died in
1657, twenty-six years old when John Howland died in
1673, thirty-three years old when George Soule died in
1680, and forty years ofif when John Alden died in 1687, all of
whom were Mayflower's passengers. Hearing of the pror
posed wharf, and believing that the Rock would be buried
from sight, he gathered on the spot his children and grand-
children and told them the story of the landing, which he had
received from the Pilgrims themselves. Dr. James Thacher
was told of this incident by witnesses of the scene, and
through the channel of his history of Plymouth, the authen-
ticity of the Rock has become a matter of historic record.

The second recognition of the Rock as the place of the
landing, occurred in 1774, when the inhabitants of Plymouth
under the lead of Col. Theopilus Cotton assembled about it
with about twenty yoke of oxen, with the view of removing it
to Liberty Pole square, as they called Town square, and con-
secrating it to the shrine of liberty. In attempting to raise
it it separated into two parts, one of which was permitted to
remain and the other was carried to its destination. There
it remained until 1834, resting against the lower elm tree on
the southerly side of the square. In that year the fourth of
July was celebrated by its removal to the front yard of Pil-
grim hall. A procession, of which Capt. Samuel Doten was
marshal, preceded by the school children of the town, escorted
a decorated truck bearing the Rock, then weighing 6,997
pounds, which was followed by a model of the Mayflower

30 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

mounted on a car and drawn by six boys, of whom I was one.
The Plymouth Band and the Standish Guards performed es-
cort duty, and on reaching Pilgrim hall an address was deliv-
ered by Dr. Chas. Cotton, and a prayer was made by Rev. Dr.
James Kendall. The ceremonies of the day closed with a din-
ner served in the basement of the hall by Danville Bryant,
proprietor of the Pilgrim House, at which Hon. Nathaniel
M. Davis presided, assisted by Hon. Isaac L. Hedge, Abraham
Jackson, Jdhn Bartlett 3d, Nathaniel Wood and Eliab Ward
as vice presidents. In June of the next year the Rock, in its
new place, was inclosed by an iron fence designed by George
W. Brimmer of Boston, the designer of the Gothic theeting
house of the Unitarian parish, and so remained until 1880,
when it was removed without display and placed within the
canopy on that part of the Rock from which it was separated
one hundred and six years before. The iron fence has since
that time served to inclose a granite memorial in front of Pil-
grim Hall bearing on its face the text of the Pilgrim compact.
As far back as I can recall, in 1832, Water street retained
much of the business aspect, which had characterized it for
about seventy-five years. The whaling and fishing industries
were active and prosperous and Boston had not yet drawn
away from Plymouth any considerable portion of its foreign
trade. Molasses and sugar from the West' India Islands, salt
from Turks Island and Cadiz, and iron from Gothenberg, con-
tinued to come in, the last free of that burdensome duty, which
has destroyed the iron industries of the old colony. I can hear
today the rattling of the bars which Stephen Thomas and
others carted through our streets to the various manufac-
tories established in Plymouth, Carver, Wareham, Plympton
and Kingston. I can count within my memory twenty-six estab-
lishments engaged in the manufacture of iron in Plymouth
county, while with only two or three exceptions the few now
at work are in a languishing condition. I have letters in my
possession written in Plymouth, opposing the imposition of
high duties, and predicting as a result of their operation the
very conditions which now exist.

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 3 1

CHAPTER IV.

Living as I did on Cole's Hill through my youth, I have a
distinct recollection of Water street and its business as far
back as 1832. During the summer I spent much of my time
out of school hours sculling a boat, or climbing vessels' rig-
ging. At those times my special playmate was Winslow
Whiting, who during the last years of his seafaring life com-
manded the bark Volant, and when the brig Hannah was in
her berth on the north side of Hedge's wharf we laughed at
the boys crawling through the lubber hole, while we proudly
mounted the futtock shrouds.

At that time there were on Water street fourteen stores,
three counting rooms, two blacksmith shops, two pump and
blockmakers' shops, two painters' shops, one sail loft, one rig-
ging loft, perhaps six cooper shops, one carpenter's shop, a
wood carver's loft, and on the eight wharves leading from the
street, sixteen storehouses. The stores were occupied by
James Spooner, I. L. and T. Hedge, Richard Holmes, George
Cooper, Elkanah Bartlett, William Nye, Josiah Robbins, At-
wood L. Drew, Charles Bramhall, Phineas Wells, Levi Barnes,
Scudder and Churchill, Leander Lovell and Henry Tillson.

James Spooner was the son of Deacon Ephraim Spooner,
and lived all his life in the house on North street, now occu-
pied by the widow of his grandson, James Walter Spooler.
He occupied a store in the building still standing at the head
of what is called Long Wharf. He owned several schooners
engaged in the Grand Bank fishery, among which were the
Swallow, Seneca and Leo. In the last named I was, though a
boy, permitted to launch, and she was commanded for a time
by the late Peter W. Smith. The Swallow had been a fisher-
man ever since 1803, but, nevertheless, continued in active
busines until 1873, when she was lost. Mr. Spooner died,
March 5, 1838. He was succeeded in the store by William
Churchill, a native of Duxbury, and the son of Peleg Church-
ill, whose daughter, Eliza, married Joseph Chandler, the father
of the late Peleg Churchill Chandler of Plymouth, who was

32 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

named after his grandfather. Mr. Churchill built and occu-
pied for several years the house on Middle street, now occu-
pied by Charles H. Frink. While in Plymouth he carried on
the mackerel fishery, employing as packers and coopers, his
brother, Otis Churchill, and Winslow Cole. He removed in
1838 to Boston, where on Long Wharf he continued the same
business.

The store of I. L. and T. Hedge, occupied the easterly half
of the building which stood on the northerly corner of Hedge's
wharf. With James Bartlett they were largely engaged in
the whale fishery, having their counting room upstairs, and
their store room below. Mr. Isaac L. Hedge moved in that
year, 1832, into the house built by him, now owned and oc-
cupied by Father Buckley, where he died, April 19, 1867; Mr.
Thomas Hedge was living in the house now owned by his
daughter, Mrs. Lothrop, which he had bought of Thomas
Jackson in i830f and where he died, July 11, 1865.

John Thomas, who as a lawyer, occupied an office connect-
ed with the Hayward house on Main street, where the engine
house now stands, was admitted to the firm in 1832, but in
1837 he removed to New York, where he engaged success-
fully in the wholesale iron business, and accumulated a hand-
some property. When retiring from business he bought an
estate at Irvington on the North river, and built a house
which he occupied until his death. He was killed by lightning
in the hay field in July, 1855. He was the father of the late
Wm. A. Thomas of Kingston.

Richard Holmes occupied a store standing immediately
north of the present market of Anthony Atwood. He was a
member of one of the oldest Plymouth families, and lived
until 1835 in the house on Cole's Hill, now occupied by An-
thony Atwood. In that year he bought a lot of land imme-
diately north of the house of Mrs. Lothrop, extending from
Court street to the shore, and built a house with fish houses
and fish flakes in its rear, where he lived until his death. In
1833, his son-in-law, Alonzo,D. Scudder, became his partner
in business, and, after his death, July 4, 1841, continued with
his scoi, Richard W. Holmes. After the death of Mr. Scud-
der, April 5, 1853, Isaac Brewster became the partner of
Richard W. Holmes, after whose death, February 15, 1862,

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 33

the store was occupied by John Churchill. Holmes & Scud-
der and Holmes & Brewster were many years engaged in
the Grand Bank fishery, and general navigation, and their
skippers, among whom were Oliver C. Vaughn, Benjamin
Jenkins and William Atwood, regardless of equinoctial storms
remained on the Banks until they had wet their salt. They
owned at various times the schooners Volant, Flash, Abeona,
Medium, Seadrift, Swallow, Challenge, Flora, Anna Hincks
and Palestine, all of which, except the last two, were engaged
in the Grand Bank fishery.

The next building at the head of Davis wharf contained for
many years prior to 1826 the counting room of my grand-
father, William Davis, who died, January 5, in that year.
After a short occupation by William Spooner, it was in 1832
occupied as a store by George Cooper. For several years be-
fore that date, and many years after 1833, Mr. Cooper was em-
ployed as a clerk, and as. far as I know, was never concerned
in navigation. His occupation of the store was short, and he
was succeeded by Elisha Whiting and Bartlett Holmes, Jr.,
and William Davis Simmons and others, until it came into
the possession of Jesse R. Atwood, whose son, Anthony At-
wood, now occupies it for a fish market. Mr. Cooper died
April 29, 1864.

Elkanah Bartlett kept a store at the northerly corner of Car-
ver's, now Craig's wharf, until his death. John Darling
Churchill was connected as clerk, and in other ways with Mr.
Bartlett, for many years, and succeeded him in business. Mr.
Churchill, like Mr. Bartlett, was engaged in the Grand Bank
fishery, and with Nathaniel E. Harlow, owned the schooners
Conanchet, Engineer, Oronoco and Wampatuck.

William Nye had a store a little back from the street be-
tween Carver's wharf and Barnes' wharf, where he bought
and sold old iron and junk. My associations with his store
are among the pleasantest of my youth, for there by the sale
of old iron, which I most assiduously picked up for two or
three weeks before that holiday which was so delightful to
all boys, the old election day, I found the wherewithal for the
holiday feast, which was held in the barn or carriage house
of some one of our families, and consisted of election cake
and lobster and lemonade in the morning, followed by a

34 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

stomach ache in the afternoon. The town baker always made
up a good batch of election cake or buns, for the occasion, and
these articles formed as important a part in the diet of the
day as succotash on Forefathers' day. Mr. Nye would gather
for his business at election time, a bag of bright new cents,
and would tempt the aesthetic taste of the boys by asking them
if they would take one bright cent or two dull ones. No day,
not even Thanksgiving day, has such a firm seat in my mem-
ory as the old election day. It was the day of the meeting of
the General Court, which until 1832, occurred on the third
Wednesday in May. Mr. Nye lived in a house at the south-
erly end of Water street, which stood on the site of the house
built and occupied by the late Rufus Churchill, who married
one of his daughters. Mr. Nye came to Plymouth from Sand-
wich, and died February 25, 1849, an(* after his death, his
house was moved across the street, where it now stands.

Alonzo D. Scudder, who came to Plymouth from Barnsta-
ble, began business in Water street with Lemuel B. Churchill
for the sale of grain and flour, but precisely where their store
was I cannot say. The partnership continued only a short
time, and in 1833 Mr. Scudder became a partner with his
father-in-law, Richard Holmes. He died as already stated,
April 5, 1853, and Mr. Churchill died December 30, 1833.

At wood L. Drew, I think, occupied a store, in 1832, in the
basement of his father's house, near the corner of Leyden
street, and was quite extensively engaged at various times in
the whale and Grand Bank fisheries, and in general naviga-
tion. In 1839 he was associated as a partner with Leander
Lovell, and built the store now standing at the northerly
corner of Barnes' wharf. In later life he was associated in
some capacity with his brother, William Rider Drew, an en-
terprising and prosperous manufacturer, who is still living,
and whose extensive establishment for the manufacture of
tacks and rivets is situated on Smelt Brook at Rocky Nook.
Mr. Drew died November 25, 1877.

The store kept by Levi Barnes as early as 1830 was one of
two in the building which stood on the southerly corner of
the way leading to Middle street. In the latter part of his
life he occupied the store which had been occupied by Phineas
Wells. He died May 14, 1853, in the house on North street
which he had owned and occupied since 1835.

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 35

Chas. Bramhall, who occupied the northerly store in the
building above mentioned, was the son of Benjamin Bram-
hall, and one of a family of enterprising sons, five of whom
I knew. His brother William was a prosperous merchant in
Boston, and for many years President of the Shawmut Bank,
a position now occupied by our summer townsman, Jas. P.
Stearns, his son-in-law. Mr. Bramhall was actively engaged
in the Grand Bank fishery, and died May 29, 1859, *n the
house where he had lived many years, recently occupied by B.
O. Strong.

Henry Tillson was a son of Hamblin Tillson, and kept a
shoe store on Water street, as early as 1828, and in 1832 re-
moved to Market street, and died December 27, 1834.

Leander Lovell's store on Water street I cannot locate, but
he was there as early as 1827, and on the tenth of November
in that year his store was entered by burglars. In 1839 he was
associated in business with Atwood L. Drew, and in the later
years of his life was a partner with J. H. Harlow in the dry
goods business in the store on Main street, now occupied by
H. H. Cole. He was Town Clerk from 1852 to 1878, and as
chairman of the Board of Selectmen and Moderator for many
years, I am glad to put on record my appreciation of his
courtesy and fidelity in the performance of his municipal du-
ties. He came to Plymouth from Barnstable and married a
daughter of Capt. James Bartlett, and died October 1, 1879.

Phineas Wells came to Plymouth from Maine, and married
in 1828 Mercy, daughter of George Ellis. He opened in 1827
a grocery store which occupied the whole front of the build-
ing opposite the head of Hedge's wharf. He was a master of
his business, prudent, methodical and industrious, and so far
as salesroom and storeroom were concerned, his store has never
been surpassed in Plymouth. In or about 1850 he moved
across the street and fitted up a store on the northerly corner
of Hedge's wharf, where he remained until 1859, when he
again moved to the store at the junction of Water and Leyden
streets, where he remained until his death, December 8, 1869.

Josiah Robbins occupied a store at the head of Robbins'
wharf. In looking over the files of the Old Colony Memor-
ial to verify my recollection of Water street, I find that he
was there as early as 1827, and in that year advertised the sale

36 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

of old currant wine. The temperance movement began in the
above year, and I think in the sale of wines the lines must have
been drawn at the product of currants, as the following offi-
cers of the Temperance Society organized in 1827 were
chosen : Nathaniel Russell, President ; Zabdiel Sampson, Vice-
President; Wm. Thomas, Secretary; and Ichabod Morton,
Nathan Hayward, Jacob Covington, Josiah Robbins, Thomas
Atwood, John Russell, Thomas Russell and Isaac L. Hedge,
Executive Committee. It is probable that up to that time
every grocery store contained ardent spirits in its stock, and
on the 8th of September, 1827, I. & E. Morton, whose senior
partner was one of the above executive committee, advertised
concerning their store at Wellingsley that "that prolific
mother of miseries, that giant foe to human happiness, shall
no longer have a dwelling place under our roof." The
movement was followed up by temperance lectures delivered
in the church at Training Green by Mr. Daniel Frost, and
total abstinence pledges were signed by nearly one quarter
of the entire population of the town. Though the grocers as
a body abandoned the sale of spirits, obedience to popular
sentiment was by no means universal. Family use and indi-
vidual consumption were largely diminished, and with the
erection in 1835 of the frame of the double house on the corner
of Howland street, the practice of using liquor at "raisings"
ceased. In the ship yards, however, for some years after that
date, work was regularly knocked off every day at eleven and
four o'clock for the distribution among the men of New Eng-
land rum. Public opinion, however, without its reinforce-
ment by law, finally prevailed, and I should say that from
1835 to 1840 it would have been impossible to buy either
ardent spirits or wines, except at the hotels, and that there
were less than a dozen houses in which they could be found.
I am inclined to think that even under the operation of strin-
gent laws there has been a reaction, and that they are now
more generally, though not excessively used than they were
sixty-five years ago. It cannot, however, be denied, that if
total abstinence less widely prevails, intemperance is less com-
mon, and more severely condemned. May it not be true that
public opinion is more potent than law?

I have said that in 1832 there were three counting houses

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 37

on Water street, meaning such as were engaged in the busi-
ness of foreign navigation. These were D. & A. Jackson,
Nelson & Harlow, and Nathaniel Carver. The oldest and
most important was that of D. & A. Jackson, which derived
both its business and character from the old firm of Daniel
and Charles Jackson, father and uncle of the members of the
house. It did not immediately follow in chronological order
the old house of Daniel and Charles Jackson, as for a time
after the death of Charles Jackson in 1818 Daniel, the sur-
viving partner, formed a partnership with his son Jacob, un-
der the firm name of Daniel Jackson and son, which was dis-
solved in 1828. In this last year the firm of D. & A. Jack-
son had its origin. Though as far as the public knew only
Daniel and Abraham were members of the firm, that at a later
date their younger brother, Isaac Carver Jackson, became as-
sociated with them, there can be no doubt. It is within my
recollection that the ship Iconium, the last ship built by the
firm, was built in 1848 or thereabouts on the Sheepscott river,
under Mr. Isaac C. Jackson's exclusive supervision.

The Jackson brothers were a remarkable set of men, six in
number, all about six feet in height, gentlemen in bearing and
dress, and with their blue coats and brass buttons, and in
summer, white beaver hats, white trousers, low shoes and white
stockings, their appearance in our streets gave character and
expression to the town. They were all confident, self-centered
men, who knew what they wanted and how to accomplish it,
meddling in no man's business and permitting no man to med-
dle in theirs ; neither asking for nor offering advice. They had
means sufficient to carry out their enterprises and never sought
outside of their family and their commanders, the contribution
of a timber head to their ships.

The first vessels built by D. & A. Jackson were the Echo
and Arno fishing vessels, which were sold. The Arno was
probably the vessel of that name, which was many years one
of the Plymouth fishing fleet. They next built a topsail
schooner named the Janus, which made one voyage under com-
mand of Capt. Daniel Jackson to Russia, and was sold. In
1829 they built the brig Janus, commanded by Capt. William
Holmes, who died in Valparaiso, May 10, 1831, while in com-
mand. They next built the brig Rhine of which Capt. Fred-

38 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

erick Robbins was master a number of years, and which was
finally lost on Fire Island. The brigs Maze and Autumn
followed, engaged in general freighting business, and the brig
Ganges commanded by Capt. Phineas Leach, and also the
brig Cyclops. All of these vessels, including others up to per-
haps 1835, were built in what was afterwards known as Bat-
tles' lumber yard. The brig Eurotas, one of the Jackson fleet,,
was bought in Duxbury and placed in command of Capt.
Eleazer Stevens Turner, which he commanded until he took
command of the ship Thracian, when he was succeeded in
the Eurotas by Capt. Ira Potter.

How well I remember those bright waisted brigs, graceful
and weatherly, and especially the Cyclops with her figurehead
representing the mythological giant with a single eye in the
middle of his forehead.

This head was doubtless the work of Samuel W. Gleason,
who came to Plymouth from Middleboro and exhibited much
talent as a wood carver. Two of his sons continued in busi-
ness in Plymouth as long as ship building was active in
Plymouth and Duxbury and Kingston, when they removed to
Boston, and achieved some very commendable work on the
clipper ships of the California and Australian period.

The Jackson firm were not long content with the building
of brigs. While such vessels were well enough adapted to the
iron trade, they were unsuited to the carrying of sugar from
the West Indies to the North of Europe, and still more un-
suited to the transportation of cotton. It was not an uncom-
mon thing for vessels in the sugar trade bound from Havana
to Cronstadt, to put into Plymouth to take out a clean bill of
health. I remember well the ship Harvest, Capt. Lawton with
George Warren supercargo, belonging to Barnabas Hedge,
anchoring in Saquish cove, and proceeding with a new bill of
health. The complete abandonment of the brig was effected
when, at a later period, coal transportation became extensive
on the Delaware and other rivers. The last full rigged brig
in Plymouth was the old brig Hannah, which was owned by
Barnabas Hedge, and commanded many years by Capt. Isaac
Bartlett in the West India trade. Her last service was on a
fishing trip to the straits, commanded by Capt. Ignatius Pierce,
the father of the late Capts. Ignatius and Ebenezer Pierce.

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 39

The last American brig ever seen by me was in Salem harbor
about thirty years ago, engaged in the African trade.

The ships Thracian and Persian were built in a yard about
where the foot of Brewster street now is, by James Collins,
master carpenter, who had already built the ships Brenda and
Dromo for Arthur French of Boston, a brother-in-law of
Abraham Jackson. The Jackson fleet of ships was completed
by the purchase in Maine of the Tyrian and the building of
the Iconium. Of each of these ships I have something to say.
Many a trenail turned out by me in a trenail machine on a
Saturday afternoon was put into the bottoms of the Thracian
and Persian, and many a cracker and slice of cheese have I
eaten in the ship house at their launchings. Capt. Frederick
Robbins was transferred from the brig Rhine to the Persian,
Capt. Eleazer Stevens Turner from the brig. Eurotas to the
Thracian, and Capt. Daniel Lothrop Jackson, son of the senior
partner of the house, was given the command of the Tyrian.

Capt. Turner was eventually transferred to the Iconium,
on which ship he was finally succeeded by Capt. William
Davie. These ships were first class ships in every particular,
and for one or each of them the schooner Capitol was bought
in Maine and placed in command of Capt. Richard Rogers,
who was sent to Virginia with wood choppers, teams and pro-
visions and a gang of carpenters under Benjamin Bagnall, to
get out frames on a tract of timber land, which the Jacksons
had bought or leased for the purpose.

In December, 1846, I was in Marseilles waiting for a steam-
er to take me to Genoa and Naples. Having been in Paris
away from the sea six months or more, I have never before
or since experienced the pleasure which a sight of the Medi-
terranean gave me. My first excursion from the hotel, after
my arrival, was as it would have been at home — down among
the shipping. The new harbor had not then been opened, and
the ships were made fast with their sterns to the mole. Seeing
an American flag at one mast head, I soon read on the stern of
the ship, "Persian of Plymouth." Inquiring of the ship keeper
if Capt. Robbins, whom I knew was the captain, was on board,
and learning that he was not, I walked along the mole, looking
into the various stores, and soon saw him astride a chair, club
house fashion, with his arms folded on the back, looking at

40 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

me as I entered. During the three days I was obliged to wait
for my steamer, I spent a half hour each day with him on
board his ship. He was soon to sail for New Orleans, and
as I afterwards learned he died while on the passage, or soon
iifter his arrival. He was succeeded by Capt. Thomas Ap-
pling, who had commanded the Cyclops, who died at sea of
yellow fever, and was succeeded by Capt. Lewis Robbins.
After leaving Capt. Robbins I walked farther down the mole
and read on the stern of a bark flying the stars and stripes,
the familiar name, "Griffin of Boston." I knew Capt. Charles
Blake, her owner and commander, who lived directly opposite
my grandmother's house in Winthrop place His vessel was
half yacht, half trader, and sometimes with guests, and some-
times without. He was a skimmer of the seas, taking com-
fort and pleasure, for which his freight list might pay in
whole or in part. While I was at Naples he came over and
anchored his bark directly in front of the hotel where I was
stopping.

But my story of Yankee vessels is not all told. On my way
down the coast of the Mediterranean a fellow passenger on
the steamer, an Englishman named James Buchanan, was
constantly boasting of the superiority of English vessels over
all others. Of course I defended my own, nor was it difficult,
in those days at least, to find fault with the squat sails, short
top gallant masts, clumsy blocks, poorly set up spars, and if at
anchor with sails furled, the untidy bunts which often looked
like bundles of rags on the yards of the Englishmen. As we
came to an anchor one morning in the harbor of Genoa, I
pointed out to Mr. Buchanan a very trig looking bark, anchor-
ed near by, which had a familiar look. "She's a tidy craft,"
said he, " and she'll be English, of course." I knew better,
and calling a boatman, directed him tc row to the vessel. As
we rowed round her stern I was not very much surprised to
read, "Truman of Kingston," in hospitable letters. I had
often seen the Truman, Capt. Doane, as well as her sister ship,
the Cecilian, Capt. Dawes, belonging to Joseph Holmes, and
I spent a pleasant hour with the captain in his cabin before
going ashore for a day's stroll before leaving for Naples in
the evening. It was singular that the only three American
vessels visited by me in nearly a year's absence from home,

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 41

should have hailed from Plymouth, Kingston and Boston, and
that all should have been commanded by men whom I knew.
Another American vessel not actually visited by me during
my trip to Europe in 1846, but seen under interesting circum-
stances, emphasized the environment enveloping me associated
with home. On the second of May in the above year, Capt.
John Eldridge of Yarmouth, Mass., master of the New York
and Liverpool packet ship Liverpool, on which I was a pas-
senger, sighted a dismasted vessel. She lay ahead of us di-
rectly on our course, and in answer to our hail as we rounded
her stern, we found her to be the bark Espindola of and for
New York from Liverpool, with four hundred steerage pas-
sengers, and commanded by Capt. Barstow of Hanover, Mass.,
fourteen miles distant from my house. Capt. Barstow re-
ported that while he was in his cabin at eight o'clock on the
morning before, the ship under full sail with a light northerly
wind, without warning, was struck by a whirlwind, and com-
pletely dismasted. She wanted spars and provisions. The
subsequent scenes were full of interest.

Luffing up into the wind and running close hauled about
three miles, while spare spars were got out and lashed out-
side, and provisions were got in readiness, we ran back and
layed to to the windward of the wreck. With a picked crew,
under the command of the mate, the life boat was sent off in
a rough sea, the mate holding in his hand a coil of lanyard at-
tached to a Manila line that would float, fastened to the spars.
When all was ready the lashings of the spars were cut, and
when the boat was near enough the coil was thrown on board
the wreck, and the spars pulled alongside. The mate backing
up to the bark jumped into the chains, when she rolled to
windward, and soon had the supply of meats and other pro-
visions put on board. Capt. Barstow learning that a Plym-
outh man was on board the Liverpool, sent his compliments to
me, and after about three hours' detention, we were again on
our course. I afterwards saw that the Espindola obtained
more spars from the packet ships, Ashburton and Hollinguer,
and reached New York after a passage of forty days.

The Tyrian, commanded by Capt. Daniel Lothrop Jackson,
met an untimely fate. During the Irish famine she loaded
with corn for Glasgow, and after her departure from New

42 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

York no tidings of her were ever received. Of the Iconium
I have a story to tell, as I received it from Capt. Turner's
own lips 9n his way from Boston to Plymouth, the day after
his marvelous escape from shipwreck in Boston Bay. It must
have been in the month of March in the early 1850s that he
came round the Cape with a load of cotton for Boston, and
with a strong northeast wind, without rain or snow, he expect-
ed to find his way without trouble into lighthouse channel.
But as the day wore on the wind increased to a gale, while
the weather became so thick that to haul off shore, if possible,
was the only safe course to pursue. With a light cotton ship,
the sagging to leeward made it necessary, as night approached,
to come to an anchor. With both anchors down and a
long scope of cable, Capt. Turner hoped to ride out the
gale. As near as he could judge he lay a mile and
a half northeast and by north of the outer Minot's Rocks.
The wind veered a little to the southeast, but as it veered it
increased in intensity until about midnight one chain parted,
He then cut away his spars, hoping that with an eased ship
the other cable would stand by. But at daybreak the gale still
increasing, the last cable parted, and the ship drifted, stern
foremost, toward Strawberry Hill. The wind had veered at
this time still more to the south, so that if the bow could be
twisted to the northward and westward, and steerage way be
got on the ship, it might be still possible to enter the harbor.
Capt. Turner managed to set a piece of canvas on the fore-
mast stump, but it did no good, and the ship continued to
drift stern foremost. At this time the air had cleared, but the
gale had not abated, and as a last resort he carried his kedge
anchor aft, and dropped it over the stern, thinking it barely
possible that it might catch long enough to turn the ship on her
heel and give her steerage way. It worked as he hoped, and
with the wind still veering, and hundreds on the shore await-
ing a final disaster, he crawled along between Hardings and
the breakers and rounded Point Allerton without a fathom to
spare. A station pilot boat lying at anchor in the roads put
a pilot on board, and Capt. Turner, as he told me, went into
his cabin and crying like a child, thanked God for his deliver-
ance. Not long after this he retired temporarily from the sea
to recruit his enfeebled health, and was succeeded in the

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 4$

Tconium by Capt. William Davie, but in 1861 was commission-
ed Sailing Master in the Navy, and while in command of the
storeship Relief, bound to the East Indies, he died at Rio
Janeiro, August 5, 1864. In just appreciation of his seaman-
ship and skill, the Boston Underwriters made him a present
of five hundred dollars.

Daniel Jackson, the senior member of the Jackson house,
died July 1, 1852, Abraham Jackson died February 6, 1859,
and Isaac Carver Jackson May 23, 1875,

44 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

CHAPTER V.

Finding it difficult to define the ownership of vessels en-
gaged in commerce, with which other counting houses on Wa-
ter street were at various times within my memory associated,
I shall subjoin a list as accurate as I have been able to make it,
of all vessels except those engaged in the cod fishery hailing
from Plymouth since about the year 1828. Those vessels in
the list engaged in whaling will be referred to more particu-
larly in a narrative of the whaling industry, while it was car-
ried on in Plymouth. Those vessels engaged in the cod fish-
ery, which only occasionally engaged in commercial pursuits,
are not included in the list, but will be spoken of in a separate
chapter. Packets and coasters and smacks are included in the
list, but the packets will be further considered under their own
head.

SHIPS.

Arbella

Massasoit

Granada

Mayflower

Hampden

Persian

Harvest

Sydney

Iconium

Thracian

Isaac Allerton

Tyrian

Levant

BARKS.

Abagun

Laura

Brontes

Liberia

Charles Bartlett

Mary and Martha

Chilton

Osprey

Condor

Plymouth

Crusoe

Triton

Edward Cohen

Victor

Fortune

Volant

BRIGS.

Attila

Cybelle

Aurora

Cyclops

Autumn

Daniel Webster

Chase

Eurotas

Cobden

Ganges

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN.

45

Garnet

Old Colony

Hannah

Plymouth

Isabella

Plymouth Rock

James Monroe

Reindeer

Janus

Rhine

Jennie Cushman

Rollins

John Fehrman

Santiago

Junius

Sarah Abigail

Levant

Waverly

Lucy

William

Maria

William Davis

Massasoit

Violet

Maze

Yeoman

Miles Standish

Young America

Minerva

Washington

Oceanus

SCHOONERS.

Anna D. Price

M. R. Shepard

Atalanta

Maracaibo

Capitol

Mary

Eliza Jane

Mary Allerton

Emma T: Story

Mary Eliza

Emma Winsor

Mary Holbrook

Exchange

Martha May

Fearless

Mercury

Glide

New York

Grace Russell

Rainbow

Independence

Sarah Burton

Janus

Sarah E. Hyde

J. H. Racey

Sarah Elizabeth

John Eliot

Shave

J. R. Atwood

Speedwell

John Randolph

Vesper

Leader

Wm. G. Eadie

Louisa Sears

Wm. Wilson

PINKIES.

Charles Augusta

Industry

George

Independence

SLOOPS.

Actress

Emerald

Argo

Falcon

Belus

Harriet

Betsey

Hector

Comet

J. W. Crawford

Coral

Pennsylvania

Eagle

Planet

46 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

Polly Splendid

Russell Susan

Sally Curtis Thetis

Spartan Wave

The four following ships, Granada, Hampden, Massasoit and
Sydney in the above list were managed by Capt. John Russell,
who bought or built them with the aid of contributions from
Sydney Bartlett, William Perkins, William Thomas, Thomas
Davis of Boston, and Thomas Russell of Plymouth. I think
the Massasoit was the only one of the four built in Plymouth,
and she was lost on Point Allerton on her return from a Cal-
cutta voyage in February, 1843. A Mr. Holbrook of Dor-
chester, either passenger or supercargo, was lost. The negro
cook calling himself Professor Steamburg, some years after-
wards opened a barber's shop in the Danforth building at the
corner of North street, having been attracted here by the name
of the town to which the ship belonged on which he was
wrecked.

Exclusive of the packets and smacks, some of which were
also built in Plymouth, a large majority of the vessels in the
above list were launched in Plymouth yards. There were
building yards in Plymouth as early as the beginning of the
eighteenth century, one of which was at the foot of Middle
street, and another on the site of the electric plant at the foot
of Leyden street. The last must have been a well known and
much used yard, and was situated on the northerly shore of
the Mill pond, which was then an arm or cove of the harbor,
with a broad entrance which was later traversed by the cause-
way and bridge existing today. At the beginning of the Rev-
olution John Peck, a naval constructor, was sent "to Plymouth
to design and build two vessels of war, which were named
Belisarius and Mercury, the latter being put in the command
of the noted Capt. Simeon Sampson. It is probable that in
early days, when only vessels of light draft of water were re-
quired, building yards were located on shores in close proxim-
ity to the woods, from which with short hauls building ma-
terials could be obtained. Thus the ship building industries
of the south shore of Massachusetts Bay were established and
continued active until the exigencies of commerce demanded
larger vessels, and the construction of railroads and the trans-

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 47

port by water rendered it easy to supply with timber the yards
of East Boston and Medford and Newburyport. I have no
conclusive record to guide me, but I am inclined to think that
up to the time of the civil war as many vessels were built in
Plymouth and Kingston and Duxbury, and on the North River
as in all the remainder of New England.

Some indication of the extent of the building of vessels in
Duxbury may be seen in the following record of the industry
in that town from 1826 to 1831, inclusive. In 1826 thirteen
square rigged vessels, and three schooners were built ; in 1827,
seven square rigged and one schooner ; in 1828, two ships, three
brigs and five schooners ; in 1829, two ships, six brigs and two
schooners; in 1830, one ship, two brigs and eight schooners,
and in 183 1, four ships, three brigs and eight schooners.

In 1834 Ezra Weston of Duxbury, or King Caesar, as he was
called, who was reckoned the largest ship owner in the United
States next to Wm. Gray of Salem, built the ship Hope of 800
tons, which I remember seeing anchored in the Cow Yard wait-
ing to be towed to Boston to be rigged. She was the largest
merchantman ever seen in Boston. In my vacation visits to
my grandmother in Boston, where I was in the habit of ram-
bling about the wharves, I remember the largest ships of that
time, the Asia, the St. Petersburg and the Akbar, owned by
Daniel C. Bacon and others, and none were larger than 400
tons. After the death of Mr. Weston, which occurred Au-
gust 15, 1842, ship building in Duxbury practically ceased.

So far as the North River is concerned the building of ves-
sels was begun as early as 1678, and the first one there built
was launched on the Hanover side of the river, a little above
the present bridge on the Plymouth and Boston road. Up to
1889, according to the record of Dr. L. V. Briggs, ten hundred
and twenty-five vessels had been built, many ol which before
the Revolution were owned in England. The largest vessel
was a ship of six hundred and fifty tons, and the classes num-
bered one hundred and one sloops, four hundred and eight
schooners, sixty-six brigantines, one hundred and thirty-three
brigs, fifty-three barks and two hundred and eight ships. The;
North River industry gradually declined as the demand for
larger vessels than could float in the waters of the river, in-
creased. The records of the ship building industry of the

48 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

f Merrimac river, and those of Medford and East Boston, show
where the industry went. The industry on the Merrimac
river began at a very early period, it having the advantage of
floating its timber from the northern woods directly to the ship
yards. Before the Revolution, what were called Jew's Rafts,
were built on the Merrimac for a London Jew named Levi,
bolted and fastened with the equipment of a ship, and sent
across the ocean. In an English newspaper of 1770 it was
announced "that the Newbury," Capt. Rose, had arrived in the
Thames, a raft of timber in the form of a ship, in twenty-six
days from Newbury, New England.

No record of vessels built before the Revolution exists, but
after the Revolution, up to 1883, about five hundred vessels
were built on the Merrimac, and registered in the Custom
House at Newburyport. The career of John Currier, Jr., of
that city, was a remarkable one. Between 1831 and 1883, he
built ninety-two ships, four barks and one schooner, of which
the largest measured nineteen hundred and forty-five tons,
and the average tonnage of the whole number was nine hun-
dred and fifty-six.

Unfortunately there is no available record of the East Bos-
ton and Medford ships, but though the career of Donald Mc-
Kay was shorter than that of Mr. Currier, it was more remark-
able. Knowing something of Mr. McKay's origin and early
life, I may be pardoned for making a special reference to him.
He belonged to a family living in Shelburne, Nova Scotia, my
mother's native town, and was engaged there in his trade as
ship carpenter. My uncle, Cornelius White, a merchant, and
the American Consul in that town, knowing his ability, advised
him to go to Boston, and provided him with letters to such per-
sons as he thought would advance his interests. Through
these letters to my uncle, Isaac P. Davis, and William Sturgis,
he at once secured work in the Charlestown Navy Yard. An
entering wedge was enough for a man of genius like him, and
the clipper ships which came one after another from his hands,
soon placed him at the head of his profession in the country.
A few years ago I had an interview in New York with his
youngest brother, Nathaniel White McKay, named after an-
other of my uncles, with regard to a steamboat for the Bos-
ton and Plymouth line, and I thfnk the steamer Shrewsbury,
which ran one season, was chartered through him.

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 49

The greatest triumph of Mr. McKay was the ship Great Re-
public, built at East Boston, three hundred and twenty-five
feet long, fifty-three feet wide, and thirty-seven feet deep,
with a capacity of four thousand tons. She had four masts,
the after one called the spanker mast of a single spar fore and
aft rigged. Her main yard was one hundred and twenty feet
long, and her suit of sails contained 15,653 yards of canvas.
She was partially burned at her dock in New York, and razeed
to three decks and three masts.

In 1803 the foreign trade of Plymouth was at the height of
its prosperity. In that year it was carried on by seventeen
ships, sixteen brigs and forty schooners, and the duties paid
into the Plymouth Custom House amounted to nearly one
hundred thousand dollars. The above list of vessels shows
how much the trade was reduced during the first quarter of
the last century. This was due to the embargo act passed
Dec. 22, 1807, on the recommendation of President Jefferson,
and later to the war of 1812. The embargo act prohibited the
departure from United States ports of all but foreign armed
vessels with public commissions, or foreign merchant ships in
ballast, or with such cargo only as they might have on board
when notified of the law. All American vessels engaged in
the coasting trade were obliged to give bonds to land their
cargo in the United States. This embargo was repealed by a
law taking effect March 15, 1809, except so far as it related
to France and Great Britain, and their dependencies, and in
regard to them also after the next session of Congress. Of
course such a law struck a severe blow at the trade on which
Plymouth most depended for the support of its people, and at
a town meeting held in August, 1808, a petition to the Presi-
dent for a suspension of the embargo, was adopted in which
it was stated that "prohibitory laws that subject the citizens to
grevious privations and sufferings, the policy of which is at
least questionable, and the temptations to the violations of
which from the nature of man are almost irresistible, will
gradually undermine the morals- of society, and introduce a
laxity of principle and contempt of the laws more to be de-
plored than even the useless waste of property."

The President replied that "he would with great willing-
ness have executed the wish of the inhabitants of Plymouth

50 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

had the Berlin and Milan decrees, and the British orders in
Council, which endangered the safety of neutral ships been re-
pealed, but while the edicts remain, Congress alone can sus-
pend the embargo."

During the fifteen months of the continuance of the em-
bargo, many of the business men of Plymouth were seriously,
crippled, and to some who survived its effects, the war which
followed it, brought absolute ruin. During the war the
wharves were crowded with vessels with their topmasts
housed, and canvas bags, which received the name of Madison
night caps, covered the hounds of their rigging. It is not to
be supposed that yankee shrewdness entirely failed to evade
the watchfulness of government officers, whose duty it was to
prevent departures from port. Some of the vessels were al-
ready loaded with cargoes of fish for the West Indies when the
war embargo began, and those which succeeded in the dark-
ness of some stormy night in quietly setting up their rigging,
and bending their sails, and getting to sea, found ready markets
for their fish at from fifteen to twenty dollars per quintal.

I will close this chapter with a list of the captains of all
vessels excepting those engaged in the cod fishery, who have
served within my recollection.

Benjamin Nye Adams Truman Bartlett

George N. Adams Truman Bartlett, Jr.

Thomas Appling Wm. Bartlett

Anthony Atwood Wm. Bartlett

Edward B. Atwood John Battles

Thomas Atwood Edward W. Bradford

Thomas Atwood Lemuel Bradford

Otis Baker Samuel Briggs

Wm. W. Baker Chandler Burgess

Bradford Barnes John Burress

James Barnes Lewis Burgess

Zacheus Barnes Wm. W. Burgess

Amasa Bartlett Winslow Burgess

Andrew Bartlett Horatio G. Cameron

Cornelius Bartlett John Carlton

Flavel Bartlett Nath'l Carver

Frederick Bartlett Wm. Carver

Isaac Bartlett Daniel D. Churchill

James Bartlett Sylvanus Churchill

Josiah Bartlett James M. Clark

Thomas Bartlett Nath. Clark

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN.

51

Wm. Clark
Wm Clark
George Collingwood
Joseph Cooper
James Cornish
Thomas £. Cornish
Nathaniel Covington
Robert Cowen
Dexter H. Craig
Ichabod Davie
Solomon Davie
Wm. Davie
Francis B. Davis
Samuel Doten
Samuel H. Doten
Simeon Dike
John Faunce
Elkanah Finney
Henry Gibbs
John Gooding
Albert G. Goodwin
Ezra S. Goodwin
Nath'l Goodwin
Ezra Harlow
Wm. O. Harris
Nathan Haskins
Gideon Holbrook
Albert Holmes
John F. Holmes
Kendall Holmes
Michael Holmes
Peter Holmes
Samuel D. Holmes
Truman C. Holmes
Wm. Holmes
Winslow Holmes
James Howard
Robert Hutchinson
Daniel Jackson
Daniel L. Jackson
Robert King
Thomas King
Clark Johnson
Wm. Langford
Fhineas Leach
Augustus H. Lucas
Wm. Morton
Wm. Mullins
Thomas Nicolson
Wm. .Nightingale
Grant C. Parsons

John Parsons
Ephraim Paty
John Paty
Gideon Perkins
Ebenezer Pierce
Ignatius Pierce
Ignatius Pierce, Jr.
Gideon V. Pool
Richard Pope
Calvin Ripley
Luther Ripley
Frederick Robbins
Isaac M. Robbins
Lewis Robbins
Nathan B. Robbins
Samuel Robbins
Richard Rogers
Samuel Rogers
Wm. Rogers .
John Ross
Wm. Ross
John Russell
Merrick Rider
Marston Sampson
Amasa C. Sears
Benj. W. Sears
Hiram B. Sears
Thomas B. Sears
George Simmons
George Simmons, Jr.
Wm. D. Simmons
NathT Spooner
Nathl Spooner
Wm. Swift
John Sylvester
Wm. Sylvester
Gamaliel Thomas
Thomas Torrey
Thomas Tribble
Eleazer S. Turner
Lothrop Turner
Wm. Wall
Charles H. Weston
Francis H. Weston
Harvey Weston
Gideon C. White
Henry Whiting
Henry Whiting, Jr.
Winslow Whiting
George Wood
George Weston

52 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

CHAPTER VI.

To the remaining features of Water street about the year
1830, it is not worth while to devote much space or time. The
two blacksmith shops were conducted by Henry Jackson, with
whom his son, Henry Foster Jackson, was associated, opposite
the head of Davis's wharf, and by Southworth Shaw and his
son Ichabod at the foot of Leyden street. A twelve-foot way
from Leyden street, in direct continuation to Water street,
separated the Shaw shop on the north from the building, which
David Turner occupied as a pump and blockmaker's shop on
the south. Thus the blacksmith building, the northerly part
of which was converted into a grocery store, was surrounded by
Water street, Leyden street and the way above mentioned.
There is a photograph in Pilgrim Hall of the above buildings as
they were before the changes were made which resulted in the
present condition of that neighborhood.

These blacksmith shops as I remember them were confined
to vessel and general work, and did not include horse shoeing
in their business. Joshua Standish came to Plymouth from
Middleboro in 1828, and established a blacksmith shop opposite
the jail on what is now South Russell street, and went into the
shoeing business ; and there were shops of Lewis Perry near
Bradford street, of Ezekiel Rider at Hobbs Hole, of Caleb Bat-
tles at Bramhall's corner, and of Isaac and Henry Morton at
Chiltonville. The shop now on Summer street, and one car-
ried on by Newell Raymond and Job Churchill at the head of
North wharf, were started at a later period

Henry Jackson lived in the house at the corner of Middle
street and Cole's Hill, and died there, September 29, 1835.
His son, Henry Foster Jackson, who succeeded him in busi-
ness, died in the same house, March 10, 1868. While I re-
member the personality of the father, I recall nothing of his
character, but the fact that he was fourteen years a member of
the board of Selectmen shows him to have been a respected
and trusted citizen. The son, never taking special interest in
town matters, was closely observant of public affairs, and was

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 53

reliable authority on all questions relating to the nautical his-
tory of the town.

Southworth Shaw lived in the house now standing at the
southerly corner of Court and Vernon streets, which had been
occupied by his ancestors since 1701, when the southerly part
of the house was built, and it is now owned and partially oc-
cupied by his granddaughter, Lucia Shaw, having been in
the family more than two hundred years. He had seven chil-
dren, Southworth, late of Boston, Ichabod, Betsey, who mar-
ried the late Wm. Bramhall of Boston, Maria, Samuel of
Plymouth, and the late George Atwood and James R. of Bos-
ton. He died January 18, 1847. His son, Ichabod, who con-
tinued the business, died March 20, 1873.

The two painters on Water street were Isaac and John Trib-
ble. Isaac Tribble's shop was on his own premises a little
north of the blacksmith's shop of Henry Jackson. He lived
in the house to which his shop was attached, until 1834, when
he bought the house recently standing next east of the house
of John Russell on North street, where he died, Feb. 16, 1865.
John Tribble's shop stood north of the shop now occupied by
Winslow B. Standish, and he lived at the corner of High street
and Ring Lane, where he died, June 2, 1862.

The j>ump and blockmakers on Water street were John
Sampson Paine and David Turner. Mr. Paine lived for some
years in a building set back from Water street, and facing the
way leading from that street to the Middle street steps, and his
shop was in the brick basement of the house, and facing Water
street. Many years before his death, which occurred Septem-
ber 29, 1878, he bought and occupied the Samuel Robbins' es-
tate on the north side of Middle street, including the hall, which
for a long time was called Paine's hall.

David Turner occupied a shop at the foot of Leyden street
already described in connection with the Shaw blacksmith
shop. Over his shop was a hall, long known as Turner's
hall, which was somewhat historic in its career. In that hall
a public female school was first established in Plymouth in
1827, under the direction of the committee of the Central Dis-
trict. In 1827, Miss Laura Dewey from Sheffield, Mass., who
married in 1832 Andrew Leach Russell of Plymouth, opened
a private school for girls there, and in 1829 Horace H. Rolfe

54 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

opened a private school. In 1832 Wm. H. Simmons, son of
Judge Wm. Simmons of Boston, opened a private school for
girls, and one of David Turner's sisters, and Miss Louisa S.
Jackson taught school there for a time. For many years it
was a favorite hall for singing schools kept by Webster Sey-
mour and Wm. Atwood and others. I have always looked on
that hall as sacred to the memory of a lost musical genius, for
on my second day's attendance at Mr. Seymour's school I was
dismissed because I -could not raise the octave. When I have
heard some of my fellow pupils sing, who succeeded where I
failed, I have regretted that the dismissals were not more gen-
eral. If I am not mistaken, in that hall the Know Nothings
held their meetines during their period of incubation before the
demonstration of their strength in Town meeting in 1854.
There also the Mayflower Lodge, I. O. O. F., was instituted
Dec. 3, 1844. The hall was only about thirty-five feet long
by about twenty wide, having an access to it by a flight of out-
side steps on the westerly end with a closed porch at the top.
So deficient was the town in halls before Pilgrim Hall was
built in 1824, and before the hall in the hotel on the corner of
Middle street, built in 1825 was available, that dancing parties
were often held in this hall, and I have heard my mother say
that she once attended an anniversary ball there, use being
made of the shop beneath for a supper room, to which access
was had by means of a trap door in the floor, and a stairway
built for the occasion. Mr. Turner lived in a house a little
west of his shop on Leyden street, and died May 14, 1869.

The two sailmakers were Daniel Goddard, with a loft at
the southerly corner of Hedge's wharf and Water street, and
David Drew at a later period, with a loft in the Bramhall
building south of the way leading to the Middle street steps.
Mr. Goddard lived next to my mother's house on Cole's Hill,
and I had occasion many times as a boy to thank him for his
kindness. If I wanted a ball of twine for my kite he gave it
to me, and if I picked out a pumpkin from the products of his
farm for a jack lantern, he made me a present of it. He was
farmer as well as sailmaker, and employed on his farm as well
as in his loft, Alpheus Richmond, his brother-in-law, and his
brother Nathan and John A. Richmond, the son of Alpheus.
Associated with him in the loft was Lemuel Simmons, brother

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 55

of his wife, who a few years after the death of Mr. Goddard,
which occurred October 30, 1844, retired from business. Mr.
Goddard married Beulah Simmons, and I have the liveliest
recollections of her house and neat kitchen and cool dairy,
where I, or some other member of our family, had our milk
pail filled with morning and evening milk. Those were not
the days of milk carts, for a large portion of the families in
town kept cows, and those who did not, sent daily to some
neighbor who did. The building up of the town has so far
reduced available pasturage near its centre that reliance for a
supply of milk now rests entirely on the remote districts of
Plymouth and on the adjoining towns. Not long ago I saw
an old assessor's book for the year 1748, when with a popula-
tion of about eighteen hundred, there were kept in town four
hundred and thirty-eight cows, one for about every four of
all the men, women and children. In the last year, 1904, with
a population of about eleven thousand, there were three hun-
dred and forty-seven cows, or one for every thirty-two inhabi-
tants.

In 1831 there were three or four besides Mr. Goddard, who
kept small herds of cows, and among them was Lemuel
Stephens, who near his residence at the foot of Fremont street,
then known as Stephen's lane, had an abundance of pasturage.
In the above year Mr. Stephens had a milk cart, supplying cus-
tomers, and I remember his son Lemuel calling at our house
on the morning of the 21st of November of that year, and tell-
ing us that the new Unitarian church had that morning been
struck by lightning. The son, Lemuel, must have been either
merely assisting the driver of the cart, or driving it tempor-
arily during Thanksgiving vacation, as in that year he entered
Harvard College at the age of seventeen, and graduated in
1835. The mention of his name recalls an incident in his life
as Professor in later years in Girard College. With many
people the memory of Stephen Girard, the founder of the col-
lege was held sacred, and one of the articles on exhibition was
a suit of clothes which had been worn by him. Professor
Stephens told me that during the absence from home one Sat-
urday afternoon of himself and wife, he found on his return
that quite a party had visited his house. "What did they
want/' asked the Professor of the servant. "Oh, sir, and for

56 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

sure, they wanted to see Brother Stephens' old clothes.'*
"Well Bridget, what did you do?" "Oh, and for certain, I
showed them some old clothes of your own hanging on a line
in the attic, and sir you ought to have seen what a time they
had over them, stroking and kissing them, and almost crying
over them." "Well, Bridget," said the Professor, "if they
call again, you may tell them they may have the lot for five
dollars."

As I am getting somewhat garrulous and running away
from the main thread of my narrative, I may be excused if I
tell another story, which the mention of Girard College sug-
gests. It is well known that Mr. Girard provided in his will
that no clergyman should ever be admitted to the grounds and
buildings of the college. Some years ago a convention was
held in Philadelphia of the Masonic order, of which Dr. Wins-
low Lewis of Boston, a distinguished physician and surgeon,
was a member. One of the entertainments provided for the
convention was a visit to Girard College. Dr. Lewis, whom I
I remember well, always wore a high white clerical cravat, and
as the procession marched into the grounds, an official at the
gate said to him — "excuse me sir, but you cannot be ad-
mitted." "The hell I can't" said the Doctor. "Walk in
sir," said the official. It is an interesting commentary on the
will of Mr. Girard that profanity could serve as a ticket of
admission where the insignia of religion failed.

Returning from this digression, as I have spoken of Mrs.
Goddard, I cannot refrain from saying a word about her
brother, Capt. George Simmons, the father of the late George
Simmons. He sailed for my father and grandfather many
years in command of the brig Pilgrim in foreign trade, and
was one of their most efficient and trustworthy captains. My
father was in Boston in 1824, fitting the brig for a voyage,
when he was taken sick, and Captain Simmons brought him
home in a chaise, to die two days later. He named his second
son Wm. Davis Simmons, born in 181 1, the master of the ill-
fated packet Russell, after my grandfather, and a daughter,
Joanna White, born in 1826, after my mother. It always
gave me pleasure to meet and talk with him when in later years,
enfeebled by lameness, he was employed as weigher of coal at
the pockets on the wharves. He died, July 26, 1863, at the

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 57

age of eighty-one years. I know no family with more marked
physical traits than the family of which he and Mrs. Goddard
and Lemuel Simmons were conspicuous members. I have
noticed these traits in other families in Plymouth, not always
the same, sometimes in figure, sometimes in walk, and again
in voice, in mould of features, and in ways of doing things.
They are such that neither time nor marriage can extinguish,
and any close observer may have seen them in the Jackson,
Kendall, Warren, Russell, Spooner and Simmons families, and
in the Perkins family of Newfields street.

Not many years ago I was in the Town Clerk's office, and
seeing a man dismounting from a wagon in the Square, I
said to the clerk, "I never saw that man before but I feel sure
that his name is Simmons, or he has Simmons blood in his
veins." When I went out and addressed him as Mr. Simmons,
I asked him if I was right in so calling him, and he said, "yes,
that is my name." "Where do you live?" I asked him. "In
West Duxbury," he replied. "Are you connected with the
Plymouth Simmons family?" and he said he supposed he was
distantly, but he was not acquainted with any of them. It
has always been interesting to me to observe and study these
family traits.

David Drew, the other sail maker, learned his trade of Mr.
Goddard, and began business about 1840. He lived many
years on Pleasant street, opposite Training Green, and died
within a year or two, more than ninety years of age.

The old fashioned coopers who in the first half of the 19th
century were numerous- on Water street, have entirely disap-
peared. Mr. John C. Barnes now buys shooks and puts to-
gether twenty thousand barrels for cranberries annually. The
coopers whom I recall were David and Heman Churchill, Otis
Churchill, Winslow Cole, David Dickson, Ansel H. and Ab-
ner H. Harlow, Perez Pool and Gideon Holbrook.

Among the riggers who had their lofts on the wharves, may
be mentioned, Lewis and Thomas Goodwin, John Chase, Mer-
rick Ryder, Coleman Bartlett, Isaac J. Lucas and Peter W.
Smith; and among the caulkers and gravers, Wm. Pearsons,
Abbet and Atwood Drew, Clement Bates and Eliab Wood.

The master shipwrights, who ought to be mentioned were
James Collins, Wm. R. Cox, Benjamin Bagnall, Richard W.

58 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

Bagnall, Wm. Drew and Joseph Holmes ; and among the ship
carpenters were, Gamaliel Collins, Samuel Lanman, Elias Cox,
Richard and Samuel West Bagnall, Abijah Drew, David
Thrasher and Isaac Lanman.

The house carpenter mentioned on Water street was Ben-
jamin Weston, who, associated with his brother Lewis, had a
shop south of the bridge onoosite the foundry. He lived for
many years in the house inherited from his father, Lewis Wes-
ton, on North street, immediately west of the house of the late
Edward L. Barnes, and died July 25, 1858.

Before closing this chapter it will be pertinent, in connection
with those engaged in the equipment of vessels, to speak of the
patent windlass invented by a native of Plymouth. Samuel
Nicolson was the son of Thomas and Hannah (Otis) Nicolson,
and was born in the house which formerly stood on the north
side of Court square, Dec. 22, 1791. His father was a ship-
master, and in the revolution commanded the privateer sloop
America, owned by Wm. Watson and Ephraim Spooner and
others, carrying six swivels and seventy men, with Corban
Barnes first lieutenant, and Nathaniel Ripley, second lieuten-
ant, commissioned September 6, 1776. Mr. Nicolson invented
in 1830 what is known as the Nicolson windlass, and was the
patentee of other inventions, among which was the Nicolson
pavement. He had two sisters, Hannah Otis, who married
William Spooner, and Caroline, the wife of Edw. Miller, and
the mother of the wife of Chief Justice George T. Bigelow.
He died in Boston, January 6, 1866, and is buried on Burial
Hill.

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 59

CHAPTER VII.

In speaking of the part Plymouth took in the whale fishery,
it may be well to refer to the general history of that industry.
In the year, 1640, Thomas Macy came from Chilmark, Eng-
land, and settled in Salisbury, Mass. In 1659 he embarked
from Salisbury in an open boat with his family and Edward
Starbuck, and landed at Nantucket, where they were the first
white settlers. Not long after their arrival, additions were
made to the settlement, and to the appearance of a whale in
their harbor, which they succeeded in capturing, seems to be
due the origin of that great industry, for which Nantucket was
for many years distinguished. Whales were abundant in the
waters of the island, and for some years they were taken by
boats, which brought the dead carcasses to the shore, where
their blubber was peeled off and carried to the try pots of the
fishermen.

In order to facilitate their work, the fishermen erected masts
on the land with crow's nests at their tops, in which in suitable
weather, observers were stationed, and when a spout was seen
the boats were launched. This method was pursued for thirty
or forty years, when small sloops were employed, making
shorter or longer cruises during the summer months, and
bringing in the blubber to be tried out on the island. Grad-
ually larger vessels were employed, furnished with try pots,
which made cruises to Davis straits as early as 1746, to Baffin's
Bay in 175 1, to the African coast in 1763, to the Brazil ground
in 1774, and round Cape Horn to the Pacific in 179 1. I have
heard it said that Gamaliel Collins of Plymouth was one of
the crew of the first American whaler to round the Horn.

It is a little singular that until 1821 no persistent effort was
made in Plymouth to engage in the whale fishery. Whales
were always at certain seasons abundant in the bay, but as far
as I can learn only occasional attempts were made to take
them. It is recorded that while the Mayflower was at anchor
in Cape Harbor, "large whales of the best kind for oil and bone
came daily alongside, and played about the ship." On the sec-

60 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

ond of February, 1673, the town ordered that whatsoever
whale, or part of a whale, or other great fish that will make
oil, shall by the Providence of God be cast up, or come on
shore, within the bounds of this township, that every such
whale or part of a whale, or other such fish as will make oil ;
two parts of three thereof are to belong and appertain to the
town, viz : the proprietors aforesaid, and the other third part to
such of the town as shall find and cut them up and try the oil."

The following entry is made in the town records: "The
marks of a whale left on record by Benjamin Drew of Plym-
outh, Dec. 17, 1737 ; the said whale was struck by Joseph Sach-
emus Indian at Manomet Ponds, the 25th of November, 1737,
there were several irons put into her, one was a backward iron
en her left side, and two irons on her right side pretty back-
ward, and one lance on her right side, the iron on the left side
was broke about six inches from the socket. She carried
away one short warp with a drug to it, and a long warp with
a drug without a buoy, one of the drug staves was made with
a white birch, one of the irons was marked witfi an I on the
head as the Indians think, with a blind S on the other side of
the head, the rest of the irons we cannot give an account of
the marks."

Thus it will be seen that though whales made their appear-
ance in Massachusetts Bay, and the means for taking them
were possessed in Plymouth, yet no serious movement was
made to engage in the business of their capture. In 182 1 a
company was formed to prosecute the fishery, consisting of
James Bartlett, Jr., Isaac Barnes, Isaac L. and Thomas Hedge,
Benjamin Barnes, Henry Jackson, Ichabod Shaw, Southworth
Shaw, Atwood Drew, Thomas Jackson, Jr., Daniel Jackson,
Jacob Jackson, Josrah Robbins, John Harlow, Jr., Samuel
Doten, Nathaniel Ripley, Nathaniel Ripley, Jr., William P.
Ripley, Richard Holmes, Jr., Benjamin Bramhall, Wm. Davis,
Jr., and John B. Bates of Plymouth, John Wheeler and Luther
Gay of Cambridge an<J Stephen Griggs of Boston. Though
at a later period Isaac L. and Thomas Hedge were active in
the management of one or more whalers, they were young
men at the time of the formation of the company, the former
twenty-three, and the latter, twenty-one, and James Bartlett,
Jr., was the projector of the enterprise, and the leader in its

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 6l

management. The company contracted with Nehemiah New*
hall of Berkley to build the ship Mayflower of 345 59-95 tons,
and she sailed for the Pacific in September of that year under
the command of George Harris. The fitting of this ship with
the hopes, which the advent of a new industry inspired, seem-
ed to arouse the dormant energies of the town, which the war,
so recently closed, had done much to paralyze. Coopers and
bakers spid dealers in general supplies, as well as mechanics,
felt the quickening impulse, and the people of the town gener-
ally were ready to contribute their capital in enlarging and ex-
tending the new business. The Mayflower was absent nearly
three years, and landed between two and three thousand bar-
rels of oil. How much of her cargo was sperm oil, and how
much whalebone she brought, I have no record to show. Be-
fore her arrival an oil and candle factory was established be-
tween what is now Winslow street and the shore, about where
the house stands recently occupied by George H. Jackson.

The Mayflower made two more voyages to the Pacific of
about three years each, under the command of Capt. Harris,
landing about five thousand barrels, and in 1830 she was sold
to Gideon Randall of New Bedford, an interest in her being re-
tained in Plymouth by Jas. Bartlett, Jr., Abner S. Taylor and
the heirs of Atwood Drew. While the Mayflower was on her
first voyage, after the establishment of the oil and candle fac-
tory, Mr. Bartlett, while in Nantucket on business, induced
Mr. Wm. Collingwood, then living there, to come to Plymouth
and superintend the refining of oil, and the manufacture of
spermaciti candles.

In 1822 another company was formed consisting of James
Bartlett, Jr., Josiah Robbins, Isaac L. and Thomas Hedge, John
B. Bates, Thomas Jackson, Jr., John Thomas, Henry Jackson,
Jacob Covington, Daniel Jackson, Jacob Jackson, Allen Dan-
forth, Isaac Sampson, John Harlow, Jr., Richard Holmes, Jr.,
Ichabod Shaw, Isaac Barnes, Lemuel Bradford, George Bacon,
Rufus Robbins and Ephraim Harlow. They contracted with
Richard Currier of Aniesbury to build the bark Fortune of
278 47-95 tons for the same service. She sailed for the Pacific
in September, 1822, under the command of Peter C. Myrick,
and returned in 1825 with two thousand barrels of oil. The
names of the members of both this and the other company show

62 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

the interest taken in the new industry by men of all occupa-
tions and professions, merchants, lawyers, traders, blacksmiths,
owners of cod fishermen, silversmiths and masons, and a de-
termination to make it a success. Among them appears the
name of Allen Danforth, who became in that year a perma-
nent resident of Plymouth as the editor of the Old Colony
Memorial.

The Fortune made a second voyage of three years m 1825,
and a third in 1829, under the command of Charles P. Swain,
and a fourth in 1833, under the command of David Upham. In
1837 she sailed under the command of Albert G. Goodwin of
Plymouth, and in 1840 she made her last voyage from Plym-
outh under the command of Wm. Almy. I remember the
Fortune well on her return in 1832, from her third voyage, and
her sailing on her fourth in 1833. Owing to shoal water at
the wharves, she made her fitting as did the other ships and
barks in the Cow Yard, and the whale boats as they came and
went loaded with supplies were especially attractive to the
boys. One of my schoolmates, Nathaniel Lothrop Hedge,
went with her. Being called out by Mr. Stoddard, the teacher
of the high school, to receive a flogging for some offense,
which must have been trivial, for he was never guilty of any
other, he quietly took his cap from the nail above his head,
and walked out of school to ship the next day for a three years'
voyage. Two other Plymouth men, I think, shipped in the
Fortune, John Barrett, who became the captain of a ship
from New Bedford, and his brother, William, who became one
of the best boat steerers of his day. On her voyage begun in
1837, George Collingwood of Plymouth was one of the crew,
and Ozen Bates of Plymouth shipped on that or another voy-
age of the same ship. The Fortune was sunk to aid in block-
ing Charleston harbor in 1861.

In 1830 James Bartlett, Jr., Isaac L. and Thomas Hedge
and Jacob Covington bought the ship Arbella of 404 26-95
tons, built in Bath, and in August of that year sent her to the
Pacific under the command of George Harris, the first Captain
of the Mayflower. She sailed again in 1834, and 1836 under the
command of Ellis E. Eldridge, but what became of her after
her return I have no means of knowing. I remember well the
Arbella hove down near the end of the new Long wharf, with

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 63

a raft under her bottom, being either caulked or sheathed or
both. My impression is that most of the whalers made their
voyages with either a bare or sheathed bottom. The process
of heaving down was resorted to where docks were not avail-
able, and was safe in shoal water. The process of heeling for
the purpose of making repairs below the water line is some-
times dangerous in deep water. The British man of war,
George, heeled at Spithead in 1782, was caught by a slight
squall with her ports open, and sunk with the loss of six hun-
dred lives.

In 1831 Isaac L. and Thomas Hedge, Jacob Covington, John
Thomas and James Bartlett, Jr., bought the ship Levant of
332 34*95 tons, built at Newbury, and in July of that year,
under the command of Thomas Russell of Nantucket, she
sailed for the Pacific. She returned with 2,700 barrels of oil,
and was sold February 14, 1835, for $15,600. This vessel
was under the management of the Hedge firm.

In 1833 Jacob Covington, James Bartlett, Jr., Josiah Rob-
bins, Jacob H. Loud and John B. Thomas, bought the bark
Triton of 314 49-95 tons, built in Durham, N. H., and in No-
vember she sailed for the Pacific under the command of
Mason Taber. She made two other voyages, one in 1835, un-
der the command of Thomas Russell, and one in 1838 under
the command of Chandler Burgess, Jr., of Plymouth. On her
first voyage William Collingwood of Plymouth was one of
the crew.

In 1838 James Bartlett, Jr., Daniel Jackson, Abraham Jack-
son, John B. Thomas, Jacob H. Loud, Nathaniel Russell,
Nathaniel Russell, Jr., Allen Danforth, Thomas Russell and
the heirs of Jacob Covington of Plymouth, and Thomas Rus-
sell of Nantucket, bought the bark Mary and Martha of 316
56-95 tons, built in Westbrook, Me., and in December she
sailed for the Pacific on her only voyage from Plymouth, un-
der the command of Thomas Russell. Wm. Collingwood of
Plymouth was one of her crew.

The brig Yeoman, afterwards changed to a bark, was built
in Plymouth in 1833, by James Spooner, Southworth Shaw,
Ichabod Shaw, Ichabod Shaw, Jr., Benjamin Bagnall, Nathan-
iel C. Lanman, Wm. M. Jackson and Stephen Turner, and
made several voyages to the South Atlantic, under the com-

64 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

mand of John Gooding and James M. Clark, and on several
of her voyages George Collingwood was one of her crew.

The brig James Monroe, of 114 91-95 tons, built in Sand-
wich, was owned by Isaac L. Hedge, George Churchill, Na-
thaniel C. Lanman, Benjamin Hathaway, South worth Barnes,
John B. Thomas, Ichabod Shaw, Comfort Bates, Joseph W.
Hodgkins, Nathaniel Russell, Albert G. Goodwin, Isaac
Barnes, Thomas Hedge and Nathaniel M. Davis, and was en-
gaged in the Atlantic fishery, under the command of Simeon
Dike of Plymouth, and probably made a second voyage.

The schooner Exchange, of 99 91-95 tons, owned by Alonzo
D. Scudder, Henry F. Jackson, James Collins, Wm. Nelson,
and Rufus B. Bradford, was under the command of James
King of Plymouth, and Rufus Hopkins of Provincetown. She
made four voyages, in three of which George Collingwood was
sailor, and in one, mate, and William Collingwood was a sea-
man when she was wrecked in the West India waters.

The schooner Maracaibo, 93 53-95 tons, built in Plymouth,
and owned by Atwood L. Drew, Josiah Drew, Ephraim Har-
low, James Doten, Ellis B. Bramhall, James Morton, Bartlett
Ellis, Andrew L. Russell, Benjamin Barnes, 2d, David Tur-
ner, Lemuel Simmons, John Harlow, 3d, Robert Hatch, Na-
thaniel Holmes and David Holmes, engaged also in the At-
lantic fishery, under the command of Capt. Pope and George
Collingwood. She was lost September 19, 1846, off Bermuda.

The only other vessels engaged in the whale fishery were
the schooner Mercury, of 74 34-95 tons, built in Middleboro
and owned by Isaac Barnes, Southworth Barnes, Ivory L.
Harlow, and Charles Goodwin, and commanded by Capt.
Nickerson, and the schooner Vesper, of 95 52-95 tons, built in
Essex, and owned by Bradford Barnes, Jr., William Atwood,
Samuel Robbins, Jr., Benjamin Barnes, Bradford Barnes, El-
lis Barnes, Nathaniel C. Barnes, Nathaniel E. Harlow, Bart-
lett Ellis, Joseph White, Robert Hatch, Heman Cobb, Jr., Cor-
ban Barnes, Jeremiah Farris, Samuel N. Diman, David Tur-
ner, Charles "Goodwin, Southworth Barnes, Joab Thomas, Jr.,
Nathan H. Holmes, David Holmes, Ellis Drew, Ebenezer
Ellis, Jr., and Edwin A. Perry. The Vesper afterwards en-
tered the fishing and merchant service.

James Bartlett, the projector of the enterprise, which seemed

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 65

to promise new life, and an aroused activity in Plymouth,
stood in the front rank among the business men of his native
town. He was the son of Capt. James Bartlett, a successful
shipmaster in days when it was necessary that a captain en-
gaged in foreign trade should be something more than a navi-
gator and seaman. He had, to be sure, his sailing orders from
his owners, seemingly controlling his actions, but sailing or-
ders, in the many which I have read, written by my grand-
father, really left the fortunes of a voyage to the discretion of
the master. Capt. Bartlett died December 22, 1840, at the
age of 81. There were others whom I might mention,
some still living in Plymouth, who also represented the best
class of merchant captains.

Mr. Bartlett, when quite a young man, was appointed su-
percargo on board a ship belonging to Barnabas Hedge, en-
gaged in foreign trade. Such a position, with the responsibili-
ties it imposed, was the best popular training school for a
commercial life, and consequently when he projected the
whaling industry in 1821, he possessed all the qualifications
for its successful management. He occupied for some years
the easterly part of the Winslow House on North street, but
in 1832 he bought the LeBaron estate on Leyden street, at the
corner of LeBaron's Alley, and built the house now occupied
by his grandson, Wm. W. Brewster, where he died July 29,
1845.. fifty-nine years of age.

With regard to the packet service of Plymouth there
were four packets within my lifetime, which are not
within my memory, the Belus, Capt. Thomas
Atwood; the Falcon, Capt. Samuel Briggs; the Sally Curtis,
Capt. Samuel Robbins, and the Betsey, Capt. Isaac Robbins.
There was a fifth, the Argo, Capt. Sylvanus Churchill,
which I have a hazy recollection of seeing at her berth at the
end of Davis' wharf. Of the eight succeeding packets I have
very definite pictures in my mind. These, in the order of their
probable ages, were the Polly, Eagle, Splendid, Hector, Har-
riet, Atalanta, Thetis and Russell. The Polly was a black
sloop, a dull sailer, unattractive in appearance, and poorly
equipped for passengers. Her captain was Joseph Cooper,
who lived in High street at the upper corner of Cooper's al-
ley, leading to Town Square. At the northerly end of his

66 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

garden on Church street, then known as Back street, there
was a store house which, when he retired from the packet
service in 1835, ^e altered into a grocery store, which he kept
until his death, which occurred November 25, 185 1, in the
83d year of his age. He was one of the last grocers in town
to keep spirituous liquors for sale, and his stock in these was
confined to Cicily Madeira wine. In 1835, or thereabouts,
one of my mother's brothers, living in Nova Scotia, arrived
unexpectedly one evening on the stage, and finding that she
was out of wine to dispense the hospitalities of the occasion,
she sent me with one of those square bottles made to fit parti-
tions in the closet of the sideboard, up to Capt. Cooper's for
two quarts of the above mentioned wine. I had nearly per-
formed my errand in safety, when slipping on the icy side-
walk I fell near the doorstep and broke the bottle. Enough
wine, however, was saved for immediate purposes, but it was
the last wine my mother ever bought.

I remember that one afternoon in 1831, when two or three
of the packets had been wind bound during a long spell of
easterly weather, Capt. Cooper came down to the wharf in a
hurried manner, evidently about to make a move. One of the
other captains said : "What is the matter, old man, what are
you going to do?" "I am going to cast off and hoist my jib,"
the Captain replied. "Parson Kendall's vane pints sou'west."
"Hm," said the other Captain, "I'd stay here a month before
I'd go to sea by Parson Kendall's rooster." This was before
April, 1831, because in that month the old meeting house was
taken down, rooster and all.

Sectarianism was active in those days, but Dr. Kendall was
so little of a controversialist, and so much respected, that he
occasionally exchanged pulpits with the evangelical ministers
in Plymouth and adjoining towns. On one occasion he ex-
changed with Rev. Benjamin Whittemore of Eel River, and
after church a conversation between two parishioners was
heard — something to this effect: "Well, Captain, how did
you like the parson ?" The Captain replied, "I don't take much
to this one God doctrine." "I guess," said the other, "one
God is enough for Eel River, they only claim three in Boston."

In this connection it may not be improper to refer to an
incident creditable to all concerned, which may interest my

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 67

readers. The editors of the Congregationalist, the leading
New England Trinitarian Congregational journal, inserted in
its issue of March 4, 1851, the following notice:

"A premium of $30 is offered for a dissertation containing
the most full and perfect and the best narrative of historical
and other facts bearing upon the following question, viz : 'So
far as Christian salvation is a change effected in individuals,
and may be known to them and be by them described to others,
does the saving power of Christ eminently attend upon a
knowledge of his life, as it is revealed in his manifestations
from his birth to his ascension ; and is it reasonable to expect
that the redeeming effect of this saving power will be propor-
tioned to the faithfulness with which his life is studied, and
the perfectness with which it becomes known, and is contem-
plated r-

After the decision on the merits of the dissertations had
been reached, it was found on opening the envelopes contain-
ing the names of the authors, that the premium had been
awarded to Rev. Geo. Ware Briggs, pastor of the First
Church in Plymouth, Unitarian.

The sloop Eagle had her berth at Hedge's wharf. She
was a snub nosed, broad beamed craft, without a figure head,
and painted a dull green, unattractive to the public and not
a much better sailer than the Polly. She was commanded for
a time by John Battles, Jr., but through most of the years of
my boyhood, by Richard Pope. Captain Pope was a genial
man, kind to his crew, and accommodating to his passengers,
and by his popular ways secured his full share of both freight
and passengers. After giving up the packet service, perhaps
about 1840, he engaged in other pursuits, one of which will
be mentioned in connection with the steamboats running on
the line between Plymouth and Boston. In 1849 ^e went to
California in the ship Samuel Appleton, sailing from New
York, and on his return he was for a time sexton of the Uni-
tarian church, and then was appointed keeper of the light-
house at the Gurnet. Later he was a town watchman for some
years, and died July 29, 1881, at 83 years of age.

The sloop Splendid was a handsome craft, well modelled,
tall masted, had a figure head, was painted bright green, and
was a fast sailer. To my youthful eyes she was the queen of

68 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

the line. For a short time she was commanded by Richard
Pope and Sylvanus Churchill, but through most of my boy-
hood, after 1832, by George Simmons. Capt. Simmons was
an energetic man, taking advantage of every opportunity,
running perhaps at times some risk, and making a trip to
Boston and back, while the vessels of his prudent rivals lay in
their berths. I remember seeing him leave the wharf one after-
noon at sunset with a full load of hollow ware from the Fed-
eral furnace, and finding her the next morning but one, when
I looked out of my window at Cole's Hill, lying in her berth
with a full load of hemp for the Plymouth Cordage Company.
Capt. Simmons, after he left the packet service, engaged for
some years in the coal business, and as wharfinger of Hedge's
wharf, and afterwards until his death, as the manager of
trucking teams. He died June 4, 1886, eighty years of age.
Capt. Sylvanus Churchill died March 2, 1878.

The sloops Harriet and Hector, both probably built in Plym-
outh, I speak of together, because they were of about the same
age, and looked very much alike. Both were painted a bright
green, and were good sailers. The Harriet had a berth at
Barnes' wharf, and was commanded as long as I knew her
by Samuel Doten Holmes. Captain Holmes bought in 1829
the house with a brick end, opposite the Universalist church,
which he occupied until 1834, when he built and occupied until
his death the house next above it. He died October 22, 1861.

The Hector had her berth at Carver's wharf, and was com-
manded by Bradford Barnes for a short time, but chiefly by
Edward Winslow Bradford, who after the opening of the
Old Colony Railroad established with Samuel Gardner, who
had been a driver on the Boston stage line, the Bradford and
Gardner express. After some years he sold his interest in
the express to Isaac B. Rich, but again later he established
Bradford's express, which he conducted until his death, which
occurred December 27, 1874. Bradford Barnes, who for a
time commanded the Hector, lived many years in the house
on the southerly corner of Lincoln street, in the house which
stood where Davis building stands, and in the house next
north of the Universalist church. He died January 22, 1883.

The sloop Atalanta was built in Plymouth as early as 1830,
and was commanded at first by Truman C. Holmes. She was

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 69

afterwards rigged as a schooner, and as early as 1837 was
commanded by Samuel H. Doten. I think she had her berth
for a time at Carver's wharf, but I remember seeing her load-
ing at Hedge's wharf on the 12th of June, 1837, the day
after the Broad street riot in Boston, about which the crew
talked as they took in their cargo. Of Capt. Holmes I shall
have something to say in connection with the steamboat Gen-
eral Lafayette, and of Capt. Doten in connection with the
Civil War.

The sloop Thetis was commanded by Isaac Robbins, and
had her berth at Hedge's wharf. She was changed to a
schooner in 1843, an^ I saw her last about 1865, at anchor
off Marblehead Neck, loading with gravel.

The last packet equipped with any view to passenger ser-
vice was the schooner Russell, owned by N. Russell & Co.,
Phineas Wells, and her commander William Davis Simmons,
which had her berth at Davis wharf. Having the business of
her owners she survived the advent of the railroad, and con-
tinued in service until her wreck. Her fate was a sad one.
She left Boston on the afternoon of Friday, March 17, 1854,
with a crew, besides her captain, consisting of Erastus Tor-
rence, Alpheus Richmond and Ichabod Rogers, and with five
passengers, Harvey H. Raymond, and his son, Benjamin B.
Raymond, Elkanah Barnes, Edmund Griffin, son of Grenville
W. Griffin, and Henry H. Weston, son of Henry Weston. The
next day in a northwest gale, she went ashore near Billings-
gate light on Cape Cod, and with the schooner a total wreck,
all on board were lost. All the bodies came ashore at Well-
fleet and Truro, and as I was requested to act as administra-
tor of Capt. Simmons' estate, it became my duty to visit the
tombs in those towns, where they were deposited, and after
their identification to arrange for their removal to Plymouth.

The cause of the disaster can only be conjectured. The
gale was from the west northwest, and as Billingsgate is
about east southeast from the Gurnet, where the Russell was
seen early Saturday morning, it is certain that she was driven
helpless before it. And as the bodies came ashore in the im-
mediate vicinity of the wreck, it is equally certain that those
on board did not leave the vessel before she struck. I see no
reason why if the rudder was under control, the schooner

yO PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

could not, even with the partial loss of her sails, have been
sheered a little southerly to a lee under Manomet, or a little
easterly to a lee under Wood End. I am therefore inclined
to think that her rudder was disabled, either by striking a rock
at the Gurnet in getting away from her anchorage, or by
striking the tail of Brown's Island in missing stays, and that
in that condition she became the prey of the gale.

Since the loss of the Russell the following freighters have
run at different periods between Plymouth and Boston, though
not in the order stated :

The Glide, commanded by Thomas Bartlett and Capt. Joy.

The Wm. G. Eadie, commanded by Thomas Bartlett and
Kendall Holmes.

The M. R. Shepard and Eliza Jane, commanded by Thomas
Bartlett.

The Shave and Mary Eliza, commanded by Kendall
Holmes.

The Emma T. Story and Anna B. Price, commanded by
Wm. Nightingale.

The Martha May, commanded by Wm. Swift, and the Sarah
Elizabeth, commanded by Daniel O. Churchill.

Besides the above there were two sloops, the Comet, Capt.
Ephraim Paty, and the Coral, Capt. John Battles, Jr., which
were quasi packets, running on no special lines, but sailing
for any near p&rt to or from which they could find freight.
Before railroads were built from Boston to the sea ports of
Massachusetts, all kinds of freight to and from those ports
were carried necessarily by water. Thus packets were run-
ning from Boston to every town of importance on the New
England coast. Those to the nearer places were sloops as to
Salem, Newburyport, Portsmouth, Barnstable, Plymouth and
Provincetown ; those to places a little more distant topsail
schooners ; those to Hartford, New York, Philadelphia, Balti-
more, Richmond, Savannah and Charleston, brigs, and those
to Mobile and New Orleans, ships. Plymouth had a very con-
siderable amount of freight to distribute, cotton cloth, nails,
anchors, hollow ware, cordage, fish and imported iron, sugar
and molasses. When these were sent in small amounts they
were sent to Boston by the regular packets, and transhipped
to the packets in Boston running on other lines. But if any

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 71

considerable amount of freight, a gang of rigging for instance
for Nantucket, a dozen or two anchors for New Bedford, or
twenty hogsheads of molasses for Hartford, or some other
port, were wanting transportation, then the Comet and Coral
found their opportunity, trusting to chance for more or less
of a return cargo for Plymouth or Boston. If they were need-
ed to go to Maine ports they were reasonably sure of a lum-
ber freight home. Indeed, as I remember, these vessels did
practically the entire lumber business of the town. Capt. Paty
died in California July 24, 1849, and Capt. Battles died in
Plymouth March 1, 1872.

There were other packets besides those of Plymouth seen
?n our waters. There was the Juventa, a Kingston packet,
and there were the Duxbury packets Union and Glide, com-
manded by Capt. Martin Winsor, the Spy, the Jack Downing,
Capt. Holmes, the Traveller, Capt. John Alden, and the Re-
form, so that with the fifteen running to and from the three
towns there was rarely a day in suitable weather when more
than one did not pass the old square pier. In addition to all
the above, the Barnstable packet sloop Henry Clay not only
passed within sight, but frequently sought an anchorage in
the Cow Yard, or came to the wharves. The distance by stage
of Barnstable from Boston induced a large passenger traffic,
and she was fitted with a handsome cabin extending to the
main hatch, lighted by skylights, and containing ample and
luxurious accommodations.

There was one other vessel to whose memory I wish to pay
a tribute on account of the pleasant fishing parties on board of
her, in which I have participated. Her name was the Rain-
bow, but whence she came, what her regular business was,
and whither she went, I never knew. She was a queer craft,
sailing well on the starboard tack, but as dull as a log on the
port tack. She would loaf along up Saquish channel with the
wind southwest, but after rounding the pier she would come
up Beach channel like a race horse. She reminded me of the
story of a traveller, who said he saw in South America a race
of goats made with two long legs on one side and two short
ones on the other, so that they could walk easily round the
mountain side. A sailor in the group cried out: "Belay
there, Captain, how did them air goats sail on t'other tack?"

•72 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

CHAPTER VIII.

It is singular that the spirit of invention and enter-
prise, which New England has displayed in the advance
of civilization, should have been apparently indifferent
in the development of steam navigation. It is true that her
activities have been fully exerted in other directions, and that,
as necessity is the mother of invention, the requirements of
her manufacturing industries have demanded to the fullest
extent the display of her genius. The Hudson River and
New York bay seem to have been the theatre in which those
early experiments were made, which laid the foundation in
this country of successful navigation by steam. In these ex-
periments, as early as 1803, Robert Fulton, assisted by Chan-
cellor R. Livingston, seems to have led the way. In 1804 Col.
John Stevens made a trial of a propelling power, consisting
of a small engine and a screw. He later attached two screws
to the engine, and the identical machine which he used is now
owned by the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken,
New Jersey. It was placed on a new hull in 1844, and made
on the Hudson eight miles an hour. In 1806 Robert Fulton
built a sidewheel boat one hundred and thirty feet long, pro-
pelled by steam, with paddles 15 feet in diameter, and floats
with two feet dip, and went to Albany at the rate of five miles
an hour. This boat was called the Clermont, the name of the
seat on the Hudson of Chancellor Livingston, and in 1808
made regular trips from New York to Albany.

While these operations were going on, causing a complete
revolution in the commercial life of the country, New England
never saw the smoke of a steamboat. The first boat to enter
Massachusetts Bay was the Massachusetts, built in Philadel-
phia, and designed by its owners, Joseph and John H. An-
drews, Wm. Fettyplace, Stephen White, Andrew Watkins
and Andrew Bell, to run between Boston and Salem. After
a few unsuccessful trips she was sent to Charleston, S. C,
and was lost on the passage.

The next steamboat to enter the waters of Massachusetts
was the Eagle, which was built in New York and had been

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 73

for a time in Chesapeake Bay, under command of Capt. Moses
Rogers, who was later commander of the steamboat Savannah,
the first steam vessel to cross the Atlantic. She came to Plym-
outh in 1818, commanded by Lemuel Clark. Capt. Clark was
either a Plymouth man, or the son of a Plymouth man, and
had married in 1817 Lydia Bartlett, daughter of the late Ezra
Finney, who lived, as many of my readers will remember, on
the westerly corner of Summer and Spring streets. He had
a son, William, one of my school and playmates, the father
of William Clark, now living on Cushman street, who at one
time was the master of the bark Evangeline of Boston. It is
probable that Capt. Lemuel Clark was induced by his con-
nection with Plymouth to bring his vessel here, where she
must have been an object of great interest to the people of
Plymouth and the adjoining towns. She remained here a num-
ber of days, Having her berth at Carver's wharf and taking
daily excursion parties into the bay. She was eight hours on
her passage from Boston, making about five and one-half
statute miles per hour. On her return to Boston she ran for
a time on the Hingham line, but I have no record of her later
history. A picture of her in oil hangs on the walls of Pil-
grim Hall, taken from a contemporaneous drawing, and pre-
sented, through the good offices of Mr. George P. Cushing,
the manager of the Nantasket Steamboat Company, by the
artist to the Pilgrim Society, and occupies a frame given by
the grandchildren of Capt. Lemuel Clark.

There is no record of the visit of any other steamboat to
Plymouth until the advent of the General Lafayette, in 1828.
She was built in New York in 1824, and bought in Boston by
James Bartlett, Jr., James Spooner and Jacob Covington, with
the view of establishing a steamboat line between Plymouth
and Boston. According to her enrolment in the Plymouth
Custom House, issued September 16, 1828, her name was
General Lafayette, with one deck, two masts, 82 feet, 7 inches
long, 6 feet, 1 inch deep, and measured 92 54-95 tons. For her
better accommodation the owners of the boat bought Jack-
son's wharf at the foot of North street, and contracted with
Jacob and Abner S. Taylor to build at the end of the wharf
an extension nine hundred feet long and twenty-eight feet
wide with a T at the end projecting northwesterly one hun-

74 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

dred feet square. The extension built of piles and timber and
plank was not completed until the autumn of 1828. In the
meantime the Lafayette ran through the summer of that year
from Hedge's wharf, leaving Plymouth at hours when the
tide served, and leaving Boston at hours which on her arrival
would enable her to reach her dock. Of course her fuel was
wood, and she made the passage in five hours, making about
eight and one-half statute miles per hour. The point reached
by the wharf was that point on what was called the Town
Guzzle, where at mean low tide there were four or five feet
of water. With that depth of water a small steamboat like
the General Lafayette could reach the extreme end of the
wharf at all times of tide. The Town Guzzle was a circuitous
one. It left Broad channel at its extreme southwesterly end,
and running southwesterly five or six hundred feet, it made
an easy curve ; thence running northwesterly about eight hun-
dred feet, and thence with another easy curve running south-
westerly about four hundred feet to a point reached by the
wharf. It was perhaps forty feet wide, and with sufficient
water beyond that width for the dip of paddle wheels, at any
time except within an hour of low water, there was rarely any
detention. Steamboats of moderate length found little diffi-
culty in rounding the curves, but those of greater length found
it anything but easy work. I remember once the steamboat
Connecticut left the wharf at near low tide, with a spring line
from her bow to the wharf to twitch her round the curve, and
as the line tautened, it snapped, the hither end coming back
like a whip lash and tripping up, without serious injury,
about a dozen persons standing near the cap log. I learned
the lesson then and there to always stand at a distance from
a spring line.

In the angle where the T joined the main wharf, there was
a flight of substantial steps, where boats at all times could
land, drawing not over two feet of water. This was a great
convenience, enabling Sam Burgess, with his fish for the
market, lobster boats from the Gurnet, and the Island and
Saquish boats, to land without regard to the stage of the tide.
Many a householder with his mouth made up for a fish din-
ner has sat by the hour together at the head of those steps,
waiting for Sam. In those days, top, the only purveyor of

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 75

lobsters was Joseph Burgess, the keeper of the light, and as
regular as the day he would appear with his lobsters and wear-
ing his red thrum cap, would wheel his barrow full about the
town. There was no talk then of short lobsters, nor of ex-
travagant prices, for nine pence, or twelve and a half cents in
the currency of the time, would buy a three or four pound
lobster. The scarcity and small size of this delicious shell fish
in our day have not been satisfactorily explained. I am in-
clined to think that the cause is not to be found in the exces-
sive amount of their catch, but in the appearance on our
shores, and the increasing numbers, of the tautog, which not
only exhausts the food, which the lobster feeds upon, but also
feeds on the lobster itself. In my early boyhood, if I am not
mistaken, the tautog was an unknown fish north of Cape Cod.
The sandy shores of Barnstable county formed an effectual
barrier to its northern migration. I think that about 1830
Capt. Josiah Sturgis, commander of the Revenue Cutter
Hamilton, brought some live tautog round the Cape and drop-
ped them in Plymouth Bay. A very few years afterwards the
first tautog was caught off Manomet, and one or two years
later several were caught off the Gurnet, while now they are
found all along the shores of Massachusetts and Maine. To
this new fish, in my judgment, may fairly be attributed the
gradual disappearance of a food fish which was once abundant
and cheap.

Returning now to the Lafayette, it can only be said that her
career was a short one. Under the command of Capt. Tru-
man C. Holmes, with Seth Morton as steward, she ran through
the seasons of 1828 and 1829, the latter year making her berth
at Long wharf, or steamboat wharf, as for many years it was
called, and then was laid up in Tribble's Dock, or building
yard, as it was called, north of the wharf to die. Her upper-
works were removed, and her engine taken out, and my only
recollection of the vessel is of a dismantled hulk with her
planking stripped off, and her timbers fastened to the keel,
standing otherwise unsupported, just visible at high tide above
the surface of the water. The only incident of her service,
which I remember, was an attempt with a party of excursion-
ists, of which my mother was one, to go to Boston and return
the same day. Night came without her return, and about

76 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

midnight my mother reached home, having ridden from Scit-
uate, where the steamboat had put in out of wood. Capt.
Holmes, her commander, took command in 1830 of the new
packet sloop Atalanta, and served with her several years until
she was altered to a schooner, and placed under command first
of Sylvanus Churchill, and then of Samuel H. Doten. He
died March 14, 1880, eighty-five years of age.

In 1830, the year after the Lafayette ceased to run, the
steamboat Rushlight, Capt. Currie, came to Plymouth and ad-
vertised to carry passengers to Boston for a dollar and a quar-
ter, the fare by stage being two dollars, but how long this ar-
rangement continued I do not know.

I know of no other steamboat in Plymouth until 1839, when
the Suffolk ran on excursions to Boston and elsewhere during
July and August. In 1840 a small steamboat, the Hope, Capt.
Van Pelt, with a light draft, made regular trips to and from
Boston during a part of the season. I recall an incident sug-
gested by the mention of her name. On the nth of Septem-
ber in that year I was called to Plymouth, being then in college,
on account of the death of my brother-in-law, Ebenezer G.
Parker, and left an order at the stage office in the City Hotel
on Brattle street, to be called for by the stage at my grand-
mother's in Winthrop Place, leading out of Summer street.
The Hope left Boston at two o'clock, reaching Plymouth at
six. The leaving hour of the stage was the same, and as
the passengers on that day were few in number, it was exactly
two when I took my seat by the side of Samuel Gardner, the
driver. As we started, Mr. Gardner said to me. "Mr. Davis,
I am going to beat the boat today." The air was clear and
exhilarating, the four horses were in good trim, and the road
was in its best condition. Mr. Gardner did not leave the box
during the trip, the horses were ready at the three places
where changes were made, and as I dismounted at my moth-
er's house at Cole's Hill, the boat passengers were coming up
the wharf. I doubt very much whether any regular stage
line in this country has ever travelled as our stage did that day,
thirty-six miles in four hours.

Shortly after 1840 the steamboat Connecticut came to Plym-
outh and took excursion parties into the bay, but I do not re-
member that she made any regular trips to Boston. In 1844,

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. Jf

if I am correct in the dates, the steamboat Express, Capt. San-
ford, ran between Boston and Barnstable, stopping at Plym-
outh to leave and take passengers. She was a good boat,
and made the passage to Plymouth in three and a half hours.
Her managers had built a flat bottomed barge with scow ends,
which, under the charge of Capt. Richard Pope, at low water
met her at the upper end of Broad Channel, and exchanged
passengers and freight. The return of the barge, by the way
of the Guzzle, especially with wind and tide against her, was
sometimes tedious, frequently consuming an hour. In 1844
the steamer Yacht ran a part of the season.

After 1845 I know of no steamboats coming to Plymouth,
except occasionally on excursions from Boston for the day,
until 1880. In the meantime the wharf began to suffer from
storms and decay. Of course it was convenient for vessels to
make fast to, until they could reach their regular berths, and in
northeast storms it served as a barrier to protect the vessels
at the short wharves from the wind and waves. At one time a
bathing house was constructed beneath its flooring. Two
bathing pools were built in two bays of the wharf, with plank
floors and walls, and steps leading up into two dressing rooms
above the wharf, to which subscribers, or those buying tickets,
were admitted. These bathing rooms served their purpose
for a time, but soon, like the wharf, needed repairs and were
abandoned.

In 1880 the steamboat Hackensack, owned, I think, by the
Seaver fish guano factory of Duxbury, made regular daily
trips to or from Boston, or both, during the summer, except
while she was repairing damages occasioned by a fire at
Comey's wharf in Boston, where she lay. At that time the
whole wharf, except about three hundred feet, which had
been kept in repair, had by the action of storms and ice been
practieally destroyed, leaving only about a hundred piles with-
in sight above the water. These were pulled up in 1880 by
the tug Screamer, some of them requiring a force of thirty-
three tons to start them from their beds.

In 1876 an appropriation made by Congress was expended
in dredging a channel fifty feet wide, and six feet deep from
Broad channel to the wharf, and in later years the width has
been increased to one hundred and fifty feet, and the depth

78 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

to nine feet, at mean low water. A basin connecting with
the channel has been dredged in front of the short wharves so
that not only can steamboats of sufficient size reach the docks,
but barges drawing sixteen feet of water find no difficulty in
berthing at the pockets of the coal dealers. In 1881 the
steamboat Stamford, commanded by E. W. Davidson, began
to run regularly from Boston to Plymouth and back daily,
and continued to run uninterruptedly until 1895, under the
same command, except during a part of one season, when,
owing to some difficulty between Capt. Davidson and her own-
er, Nathaniel Webster of Gloucester, the former was tem-
porarily displaced. Capt. Davidson also ran the Shrewsbury
and Wm. Story each one season, and as a supplementary
freight boat after the close of one season the Shoe City of
Lynn. Since 1897, or about that time, the following boats
have run on the route: The Lillie, Putnam, O. E. Lewis,
Henry Morrison, Plymouth, Cape Cod, Governor Andrew,
and Old Colony. During one season the Stamford ran after
her name was changed to Endicott. During the last three
seasons the Nantasket Steamboat Co. have had exclusive leases
of available wharves, and have run the Governor Andrew and
the Old Colony. The latter is a new boat running in 1904
for the first time, and is recognized as the most convenient,
safest and most elegant excursion boat in the waters of Mass-
achusetts. The wharf is now, with three hundred feet of its
old timber and pile extension, owned by Charles I. and Henry
H. Litchfield of Plymouth who, having fitted it expressly for
steamboat purposes, keep it in excellent repair, and have leased
it to the Nantasket Steamboat Company. The Pilgrim So-
ciety, owning Pilgrim wharf, refrain from leasing it to any
competing line, believing that the Nantasket Co. should he
encouraged in their efforts to establish a permanent and suc-
cessful enterprise.

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 79

CHAPTER IX.

Allusion has been made to the embargo and to the Yankee
shrewdness which evaded the watchfulness of government offi-
cers whose duty it was to prevent departures from port. The
following narrative, for the incidents in which I am indebted
to Capt Charles C. Doten, illustrates the shrewdness to which
I referred.

During the Embargo, Plymouth's fishing fleet was laid up
in the docks, and the owners found themselves cut off from the
trade with the West India Islands. The catch of fish from
the Grand Banks could not be sold to advantage for want of
this market, and after being cured remained stored in the
fish houses.

England and France then being at war their West India de-
pendencies were subject to blockade, and as a consequence pro-
visions which could be run into the ports of either nationality,
commanded high prices. With such a temptation it was not
strange that there were found adventurous men in fishing ports
to hazard the loading of vessels with dry fish, and disregarding
embargo penalties of our own government, surreptitiously de-
part "for the West Indies and a market."

Plymouth was not lacking in this sort of enterprise, and the
writer proposes to sketch one or two of the "run-a-ways," to
show the character of the men of those days who a little later
did the country good service as "privateersmen" when the war
between the United States and England was fought.

Anticipating that these attempts to break the embargo would
be made in spite of stringent regulations, orders were given
to the customs officers at every port to keep strict watch and
prevent vessels from going to sea. Accordingly at Plym-
outh, Water street was nightly patrolled, and a guard boat
well manned, and in charge of Capt. Joseph Bradford, was sta-
tioned in Beach channel to intercept any outward bound vessel
which might succeed in getting away from the wharves.
With these precautions it would seem to have been difficult, to
evade successfully the minions of the law and run out a cargo

80 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

of fish in defiance of all the Federal government could do to
prevent it, yet it was done.

The first schooner was the Hannah, lying at Hedge's, now
known as Pilgrim wharf, which then had two or three ware-
houses on it, one of them containing fish. On a dark night an
industrious gang of men quietly loaded the vessel from the
warehouse, but unluckily, before their work was completed,
the tide fell so that the Hannah grounded, and could not get
to sea that night as intended. Next day the custom house
officers noted that the vessel did not rise buoyantly with the
tide, so going on board they lifted the hatches, and at once dis-
covered "what was the matter with Hannah."

Felicitating themselves that they had caught their mouse,
and determining that there should be no escape, they stripped
the vessel "to a girtline," that is, they removed all her sails to-
gether with the running and standing rigging, leaving nothing
aloft but a single block on each mast through which a line
was rove for the purpose of hoisting a man when the craft
was to be re-rigged. All the gear was carted away,
and, while the fish were left on board, the Hannah being ab-
solutely reduced to bare poles, the officials were perfectly cer-
tain that they had made it impossible for her to take her cargo
to the West Indies. Of course the laugh went round town
at the expense of the defeated owners, and the officials were
"cocky" over their smartness. Weeks went by and the in-
cident passed out of mind, the deeply laden Hannah meantime
lying in her berth and daily rising and falling with the tide.
All the same her voyage to Martinique was made up, her cap-
tain and crew engaged, and the man who was to rig and take
her out of dock had his gang picked for the purpose, and only
awaited his opportunity. This man was Capt. Samuel Doten,
father of our townsmen, the late Major Samuel H. and Capt.
Charles C. Doten, one of the most energetic shipmasters of his
day, whom nothing ever daunted, and who liked nothing better
than a bit of dare-devil business, being perfectly competent for
anything pertaining to seamanship or calling. for executive abil-
ity. These qualities were well known in this town, so natural-
ly he was "in it" with the Hannah. Capt. George Adams,
another old sea dog, was his right-hand man in the part he had
to do, and there were two or three others, who could handle a

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 8l

marlinspike and make a knot or seizing as well in darkness as
at noonday.

Capt. Doten lived at the foot of the Green, on what is now
Sandwich street and kept a boat on the south shore near the
place, where he afterwards built the wharf, now owned by
Capt. E. B. Atwood. The long waited opportunity came one
night with a howling southeast rain storm, from which the
Water street watch sought shelter in one of the stores. There
the officers with pipes and toddy made themselves comfortable,
while right before their noses the Hannah's decks were alive
with her own crew, and Capt. Doten's gang of riggers, who
had come alongside in boats. A loft which contained the gear
of another vessel, likewise clean stripped by her careful owner,
so her rigging might not get weather worn in the months of
the tie-up, was broken open and the shrouds and stays were
carried on board the Hannah. Capt. Adams was the man to
go aloft and put the eyes of the rigging over the mast heads,
and Capt. Doten arranged for a system of wooden tags to be
tied to the pieces as they went up, so that by feeling the
notches cut in the tags, Capt. Adams would know whether
what he received belonged on the starboard or port side. So
it was also with the blocks and halliards, and all being under-
stood, Capt. Adams took his place in the sling tied in the end
of the girtline, and was soon hoisted to the crosstrees. The
hours passed, but before daylight the Hannah was rigged, hal-
liards rove fore and aft, and sails bent, though both rigging and
sails were too large for her, belonging as they did to another
vessel of greater tonnage. Capt. Doten had met this dif-
ficulty in the case of the standing rigging, which was too long,
by turning up the ends of the shrouds over hand spikes used
for shearpoles, and passing the lanyards from the deadeyes at
the rail also over the handspikes, his deck men then setting taut
with the watch tackles they had brought, and seizing all off
securely. The sails were made smaller simply by putting
in a reef.

All was now ready, and the Hannah cast off and dropped
down to the end of the wharf. Capt. Doten, who was a good
pilot for the harbor, took charge, and with the hoisting of the
jib the vessel quickly fell off before the wind and ran directly
along the shore for High Cliff, there then being no Long wharf

82 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

in the way. This course was taken to avoid the guard boat
which was supposed to be patrolling the channel along by the
Beach, the usual way of leaving the port. It was the top of
high water and there was little likelihood that with proper
care the vessel would touch anything. At High Cliff Capt.
Doten ordered the mainsail set and pointed the Hannah's nose
for the open sea. Then giving the helm to her captain, whose
name the writer unfortunately has never heard, he gave the
course to steer, and the schooner went romping down by
Beach Point at a pace which left no chance for thfe guard boat
to intercept her, when from away up Beach channel Capt.
Bradford descried the fleeting sail. Before getting far down
the harbor Capt. Doten and his men wished the Hannah and
her crew a successful voyage, and jumping into their boat
towing alongside were, before the early morning, snugly
stowed away in their respective homes. Of course there was
g~eat excitement when it was found the bird had flown, and
instantly the conclusion was reached that "Sam Doten had
ntn away with the Hannah," so the officers at once repaired
to his house where his wife was unconcernedly getting break-
fast, and Capt. Doten, having apparently just arisen, was leis-
urely dressing. The officers were greatly surprised at finding
him and he equally surprised to learn from them that the Han-
nah had got away, nor did he hesitate to express his gratifica-
tion that the custom house gang had been so thoroughly out-
witted.

The Hannah made an excellent run to the West Indies and
arrived safely at Martinique, where she sold her fish at $20
per quintal of 112 pounds and the vessel also was disposed of,
the aggregate sum which ultimately got around to her owners
being a very handsome one for the venture.

The Hope and the Cutter.
The brig Hope was the next Plymouth vessel to "run the
embargo." She belonged to William Holmes of this town,
and loaded a cargo of dry fish at Provincetown, where she
was seized by the customs officers of that port, and anchored
in the harbor, with a revenue cutter commanded by Capt.
Thomas Nicolson of Plymouth lying near at hand to prevent
her from going to sea. Under these circumstances her owner

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 83

induced Capt. Samuel Doten, who had "assisted" in the Han-
nah adventure, to become the principal in "cutting out" the
Hope from under the guns of the revenue vessel.

Selecting his crew, Capt. Doten took charge of the brig
and waited for things to come around to his liking. What he
wanted was a smart northeast gale, which is a fair wind out
of Provincetown, though of course a pretty rough affair to
contend with in the open bay, and against which he would
have to work his vessel out past the Cape after getting clear
of the harbor. No abler or more daring seaman ever trod a
deck, and, whatever the chances, Capt. Doten was ready to
take them, so when one night the weather shut in "nasty" with
indications of the wished for gale the next day, he made his
preparations. A mooring line was run out aft to keep the
brig's head toward the harbor mouth, so that her square sails
should immediately fill before the wind when hoisted. On the
yards the gaskets keeping the furled sails in place were nearly
cut off, so that while they still preserved the shape, they would
part and allow the topsails to be hoisted without having to
send men aloft to loose them as usual when getting under way,
much depending on gaining a few minutes over the cutter at
the start. Vessels of those days had hemp cables, and Capt.
Doten meant to "cut and run" when the decisive moment came.

With the morning the gale was piping smartly, and it never
occurring to the captain of the revenue cutter that a vessel
would attempt to go to sea in such a blow, he took his gig
with her crew and went ashore. The ebb tide left the boat on
the beach while Capt. Nicolson and his men were up town,
and meanwhile the sympathetic Provincetowners. ready to
help the Hope, stole the thole pins and an oar or two. This
was the favorable moment, while the cutter was disabled for
want of her commander and several men, for whose return
on board she would have to wait, so Capt. Doten cut his cable
and stern, mooring line, quickly hoisted and sheeted home his
fore topsail, and was moving down the harbor before the
lieutenant in charge of the cutter realized the situation. Seiz-
ing a musket he fired at Capt. Doten, who was at the Hope's
helm, but made a bad shot. Then he let go a big gun at the
brig, which also was poorly aimed, and did no harm. It
served, however, as a signal for Capt. Nicolson to come on

84 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

board, if he needed more than the evidence of his eyes. The
town was immediately alive with excitement, for the sea-faring
men took in the whole plan and shouted with delight over its
boldness and sheer sailor-like daring. Men hindered more
than they helped while pretending to assist in getting the boat
down to the water, but at last, with her captain on board again,
the cutter got into full chase, firing her bow guns at the brig
in hope of crippling her spars if doing nothing more dam-
aging. Provincetown has rarely seen anything more exciting
than that running fight, and the story is told there even to this
day, as the writer can vouch, having himself heard it from an
old sea dog over there within a few years.

The Hope was a good sailer, and soon doubled round the
long, sandy point at the harbor mouth, across which the cutter
still continued firing, the shots sending the sand into the air
in clouds as they skipped over the beach.

After getting outside, Capt. Doten made more sail for the
better handling of his vessel, and one of his men, William
Stacy of Boston, went aloft to loose a to'gallant sail. Just as
he reached the crosstrees and gripped the shrouds for further
ascent, a shot passed so close to him that, holding by his hands,
the wind of it strung him out like a flag. Getting his footing
again he yelled: "A good shot, try it again," and went on
with his duty.

The cutter soon got into the open bay where the sea was so
rough that her firing became entirely ineffectual, and she could
only chase. Capt. Nicolson, however, was one of the plucky
kind and meant to do his full duty by keeping the Hope in sight
if he could do nothing more. The gale became fiercer, and the
sea rougher as the two vessels got from under the lee of the
Cape, and that night the cutter was forced ashore near Scitu-
ate and wrecked, but with no loss of life. Capt. Doten, with
a loaded vessel under him, which he knew how to handle,
made better weather of it, and succeeded in beating the Hope
cut past Cape Cod against the storm, and in a day or two
was running for the West Indies, intending to make Mar-
tinique.

All went well until nearing his destination, when one after-
noon a big British frigate poked her nose out from behind
an island right across his path and fired a gun for him to heave

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 85

to. There was nothing for it but to obey, and a boat with a
boarding party was soon alongside. The officer wanted to
know where the brig was bound, to which Capt. Doten replied,
"West Indies and a market." "You mean Martinique, don't
you ?" said the officer, "and let me tell you thaj had you got in
there the Frenchmen would have given you $25 a quintal for
your fish ; but you will do well as it is, for I'm going to send
you into the English island of St. Lucia, and our people will
give you $16." "Very well," answered Capt. Doten, "I'll go
to St. Lucia then." "Yes," replied the officer, "I'm sure you
will, as I'm going with you, for you Yankees are altogether
too smart and slippery to be trusted alone, with $9 on a quin-
tal of fish difference as to where you land them."

So the Hope went into St. Lucia, where Capt. Doten sold
both fish and vessel, and later he found his way home with
$25,000 in Spanish doubloons, a large part of the sum being
sewed into his clothing, and the writer has heard the Captain's
wife tell of letting him into the house at about two o'clock
one morning, and of their sitting up in bed together, ripping
out the gold pieces and tossing them into a shining pile, of
which "Hope told a flattering tale."

86 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

CHAPTER X.

At the beginning of the Revolution the cod fishery of Plym-
outh was active and successful, and during the previous ten
years had employed an average of sixty vessels. During the
war it was of course seriously depressed, but after the declara-
tion of peace its recuperation was rapid. In 1802 it had reach-
ed its maximum of prosperity, before the embargo and the
war of 181 a again crippled it. In that year there were thirty-
seven vessels engaged in it, employing two hundred and sixty-
six men, and landing twenty-six thousand, one hundred and
seventy-five quintals of codfish, or an average of seven hnn-
dred and seven quintals for each vessel. All but six of these
vessels made two trips. The following list of the vessels en-
gaged that year with their tonnage, the names of the skippers
and the fare of each may be interesting to some of my readers.

Lucy, Thomas Sears, 75 tons, 800 quintals.

Old Colony, George Finney, 80 tons, 850 quintals.

Wm. Davis, Jr., Elkanah Finney, 90 tons, 1000 quintals.

Mary, Clark Finney, 75 tons, 450 quintals.

Swan, Thadeus Churchill, Jr., 60 tons, 895 quintals.

Polly, Amasa Churchill, 45 tons, 800 quintals.

Ceres, Wm. Brewster, 60 tons, 1,100 quintals.

Washington, Amasa Brewster, 90 tons, 840 quintals.

Swallow, Melzar Whiting, 50 tons, 900 quintals.

Benj. Church, Nathaniel Clark, 70 tons, 350 quintals.

Crusoe, Stephen Payne, 60 tons, 900 quintals.

Nightingale, Ansel Holmes, 35 tons, 700 quintals.

Union, Samuel Virgin, 70 tons, 850 quintals.

Rose, Barnabas Dunham, 55 tons, 710 quintals.

Dove, Wm. Barnes, 34 tons, 650 quintals.

Seaflower, Isaac Bartlett, 60 tons, 1,000 quintals.

Nathaniel Sylvester, 80 tons, 800 quintals.

Ansel Holmes, 60 tons, 500 quintals.

Phebe, John Allen, 75 tons, 700 quintals.

New State, Joseph Holmes, 50 tons, 700 quintals.

Drake, Barnabas Faunce, 44 tons, 550 quintals.

Columbia, Truman Bartlett, 70 tons, 700 quintals.

Neptune, Chandler Holmes, 55 tons, 600 quintals.

Esther, Seth Robbins, 45 tons, 600 quintals.

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 87

Lucy, Eben Davie, 50 tons, 600 quintals.

Caroline, Ellis Holmes, 60 tons, 800 quintals.

Hero, Joseph Doten, 60 tons, 600 quintals.

Industry, Joseph Ryder, 60 tons, 600 quintals.

Federalist, Finney Leach, 80 tons, 750 quintals.

Eagle, Jabez Churchill, 30 tons, 300 quintals.

Polly, Lemuel Leach, 70 tons, 700 quintals.

Leader, Job Brewster, 35 tons, 660 quintals.

Manson, Ellis Brewster, 105 tons, 450 quintals.

Rosebud, Andrew Bartlett, 40 tons, 580 quintals.

Hawk, Samuel Churchill, 60 tons, 700 quintals.

Seaflower, Ansel Bartlett, 40 tons, 790 quintals.

Rebecca, Codman, 50 tons, 700 quintals.

After the peace of 181 5 the fishery entered upon a season
of renewed activity, which continued with occasional periods
of relaxation until its final extinction. The government having
found during the revolution that fishermen made up a large
share of naval enlistments, adopted the policy of aiding and
encouraging the fishing industry, and in 1789 Congress passed
an act granting a bounty of five cents per quintal on dried fish,
and imposed a duty of fifty cents per quintal on imported fish.
In 1790 the bounty of five cents was increased to ten, but on
the 16th of February, 1792, the bounty of ten cents per quintal
was discontinued, and an allowance was made to vessels em-
ployed in the cod fishery at sea for four months between the
last day of February and the last day of November, according
to the following rates : Vessels between twenty and thirty tons
were to receive $1.50 per ton annually, and those of more than
thirty tons, $2.50 per ton, but the allowance to any vessel was
limited to $170. In 1797 the allowance was increased one-
third; but in 1807 all bounties were abolished. In 1813 the
bounty was revived and the allowance fixed as follows: To
vessels from five to twenty tons, $1.60 per ton; to those from
twenty to thirty, $240 per ton, and to those above thirty, $4,
but no vessel was to receive more than $272. In 1819 an al-
lowance was made to vessels from five to thirty tons of $3.50
per ton, and to those of more than thirty, $4 per ton, but ves-
sels having a crew of ten men were to be allowed $3.50 per
ton on a service of three months and a half. No vessel, how-
ever, was to receive more than $360. By an act passed in
1 817, it was required in order to entitle a vessel to receive a

88 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

bounty that the master and three quarters of the crew should
be citizens of the United States, but in 1864 this requirement
was limited to the masters. By an act passed July 28, 1866,
bounties were abolished, and duties on salt used in curing fish
were remitted.

The abolition of bounties was a blow to the fishing interests,
which was destined to be followed by a more deadly one. It
cannot, however, be said that it was wholly undeserved, for
the requirement of four months' service at sea had been often
evaded. A very considerable number of the fishing fleet re-
turned home before four months had expired, and anchoring
in beach channel by night and cruising in the bay by day, spent
the time in what was called bounty catching, until the expira-
tion of the four months.

But a severer blow than the loss of bounty soon fell on the
fishery. In 1871 the treaty of Washington between the United
States and Great Britain provided that "fish oil and fish of all
kinds, except fish of the inland lakes, and of the rivers falling
into them, and except fish preserved in oil, being the produce
of the fisheries of the United States, or of the Dominion of
Canada, or of Prince Edward Island, shall be admitted into
each country, respectively, free of duty." This treaty went
into operation July 1, 1873, to remain in force for ten years,
and further until the expiration of two years after the United
States or Great Britain shall have given notice to terminate it.
• At the time of the repeal of the bounty law in 1866, the
product of the Plymouth fishery taking the returns from the
previous year as a basis of an estimate was as follows : Value
of fish, $261,053; value of oil, $24,530; bounties, $14,249, and
the number of men employed was 420. I am inclined to think
that the largest number of vessels ever employed was in the
year 1862, when sixty-seven were employed, but in 1873, ^e
year the treaty of Washington went into operation, there were
only twenty.

As nearly as I can judge the following is a correct list of
vessels engaged in the fishery since 1828:
Abby Morton Albert

Abeona Albion

Adelaide Annie Eldridge

Adeline Anti

Albatross Arabella

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN.

89

Arno

Aurora

Austin

Avon

Banker

Ben Perley Poor

Betsey

Blue Wave

Black Warrior

Brontes

California

Caroline

Ceres

Challenge

Charles

Charles

Charles Augusta

Charles Henry

Christie Johnson

Clara Jane

Climax

Clio

Clifford

Cobden

Coiner
Columbia

Columbus

Conanchet

Confidence

Congress

Constitution

Cora

CosteHo

Deborah

Deliverance

Delos

Delta

Dolphin

Drake

Duck

Eagle

Elder Brewster

Eleanor

Eliza

Eliza Ann

Elizabeth

Ellis

Engineer

Enterprise

Essex

Experience

Fairplay

Fair Trade

Favorite

Fearless

Fisher

Flash

Flora

Fornax

Florida

Forest King

Fortune

Franklin

Fred Lawrence

Fredonia

Gentile

George

George Henry

Glendora

Glide

Grampus

Guide

Hannah

Hannah Coomer

Hannah Stone

Hattie Weston

Helena

Herald

Hercules

Hero

Hiram

Home

Horatio

Howard

Independence

Industry

Jane

John Eliot

John Fehrman

Joshua Bates

Juvenile .

Latona

Leo

Leonidas

Lewis Perry

Linda

Linnet

Lizzie W. Hannum.

90

PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

Louisa

Louise

Lucy

Lyceum

Malvina

Manchester

Manomet

Maria

Martha Washington

Mary A. Taylor

Mary Baker

Mary Chilton

Mary Holbrook

Mary Susan

Massachusetts

Matilda

May

Mayflower

May Queen

Medium

Molly Foster

Mona

Mountain King

Nahant

Naiad Queen

Nathaniel Doane

Neptune

N. D. Scudder

Oasis

Ocean

Old Colony

Olive Branch

Ontario

Orion

Oronoco

Pamlico

Perseverance

Philip Bridges

Pezarro

President

Profit

Rainbow

Reaper

Reform

The following list
gradual reduction of
twenty in 1873 :

Rescue

Resolution

Risk

Rival

Robert Roberts

Rollins

Roxanna

Sabine

Samuel

Samuel Davis

Sarah and Mary

Sarah E. Hyde

Sarah Elizabeth

Scud

Seadrift

Seaflower

Seafoam

Sea Witch

Seneca

Silver Spring

Speedwell

Storm King

Stranger

Sunbeam

Surprise

Susan

Swallow

Thatcher Taylor

Thetis

Three Friends

Tramc

Tremont

Vesper

Village Belle

Volant

Wampatuck

Wanderer

Wave

Wide Awake

Willie Lord

Wm. Tell

Wm. Wilson

Winslow

of vessels employed in 1868 shows the
the fleet from sixty-seven in 1862 to

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN.

91

Abby Morton

Mary Taylor

Adeline

Mary Susan

Avon

Matilda

Charles

May Flower

Charles Augusta

May Queen

Clara Jane

Nahant

Climax

Naiad Queen

Cora

N. D. Scudder

Delos

Oasis

Dolphin

Ocean

Elizabeth

Olive Branch

Engineer

Oronoco

Favorite

Profit

Florida

Risk

Forest King

Samuel

George

Samuel Davis

George Henry

Seadrift

Glendora

Sea Witch

Helena

Silver Spring

Herald

Sunbeam

Joshua Bates

Surprise

Juvenile

Swallow

Linnet

Thatcher Taylor

Louisa

Tremont

Manomet

Volant

Manchester

Wave

Martha Washington

Wampatuck

Mary Chilton

Winslow

In 1869 there were fifty-four; in 1870, fifty-two; in 1871,
forty; in 1872, twenty-six; in 1873, twenty; in 1874, twelve;
in 1876, twelve; in 1878, eleven; in 1879, ten; in 1880, eight;
in 1881, seven; in 1882, two; in 1883, two; in 1884, eight; in
1885, three; in 1886, one; in 1888, one, the Hannah Coomer,
Capt. Nickerson, the last vessel to go to the Banks from Plym-
outh. In 1882 Prince Manter bought the Sabine, and Capt.
James S. Kelley made seven trips in her in four summers, the
last vessel to go to the Grand Banks, while the Hannah
Coomer was the last to go to Quereau Bank.

The following is a list of fishing vessels lost since 1828, as
complete as I am able to make it:

Abby Morton, Joseph Whitton, master, lost in Hell Gate,
New York.

Adelaide, Capt. Joseph Sampson, was lost on the Banks.

Samuel, condemned in Nova Scotia.

Brontes, on a passage from Aux Cayes, to Boston, left

92 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

Holmes Hole December 31, 1862, and was never heard from.
Her crew consisted of John E. Morton, captain; George
Morey, mate, and Samuel Howland, Isaac Howland, Bartlett
Finney and Josiah H. Swift.

Charles, Isaac Howland, master, was lost on Cape Cod.

Charles, Isaac Swift, master, left Plymouth September 29,
1868, on a fall fishing trip, and was never heard from.

Congress, owned by Samuel Doten, was lost.

Wampatuck, seized in Nova Scotia in 1870 or 1871.

Delos, sunk in Nantucket Roads in 1872.

Wm. Tell, sold before 1828, and lost on Grand Banks in
1829.

Christie Johnson, Solomon M. Holmes, master, was lost on
the banks in 1874.

Ellis, was lost on Cape Cod in 1844.

Flash, Eli H. Minter, master, was lost in the West Indies
in 1865.

Fred Lawrence was lost.

Herald, lost or sold in Nova Scotia in 1870.

Linnet, Wm. Langford, master, was lost with all hands,
in September, 1870.

Martha Washington, Capt. Gooding, was lost in Nova Sco-
tia in 1874.

Mary A. Taylor, Lewis King, master, was lost or sold in
Nova Scotia in 1874.

May was lost in 1871.

Ocean, Jerry McCuskey, master, was lost in Nova Scotia
in 1870.

Olive Branch was lost in 1869.

President, John Ellis Bartlett, master, lost in 1828, bound
to Martinique.

President, Stephen D. Drew, master, was lost on Cape Cod
in 1844.

Rollins, Charles Harlow, master, was lost on Cape Cod in
1868.

Seadrift was lost or sold in 1871 in Nova Scotia.

Speedwell was lost in the West Indies in 1865.

Swallow was lost or sold in Nova Scotia in 1871.

Thatcher Taylor, James Simmons, was lost or sold in 1871.

Fearless, Capt. George N. Adams, sailed from Boston for
Aux Cayes, August 13, 1862, and was never heard from.

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 93

John Eliot, Francis H. Weston, master, sailed from Boston
October 9, 1863, for Cape Haytien, and crew taken off Novem-
ber 21 by schooner Thrasher, and landed at Port Spain.

Mary Holbrook, was lost in the Gulf, January 25, 183 1.

Joshua Bates was lost on Richmond Island in February,
1876.

Franklin was lost at the Western Islands in 1837.

George Henry, Lamberton, master, was condemned in West
Indies, 1869.

Vesper, Capt. Burgess, sailed from New York, February
28, 1846, for Jamaica, and was lost probably in a gale March 2.

Flora, Benjamin Jenkins, master, was spoken August 8,
1846, with 15,000 fish; August 21, with 21,000; August 28,
with 23,000; September 17, with 30,000, and was probably
lost in a gale which occurred September 19, 1846.

Coiner, Samuel Rogers, master, was lost on a passage home
from Inagua in 1865.

Stranger was lost at sea near St. Thomas, 1835.

Oronoco was lost in 1871.

Schooner Maracaibo, changed to a brig before she entered
the whale fishery, has been earlier mentioned without any de-
tails of her loss. She sailed from Plymouth on a whaling voy-
age September 12, 1846. On the 19th, in latitude 38.22, and
longitude 72.35, she was capsized, losing second mate, Wm.
Tripp, of Tiverton, David Sylvia seaman, and George Ellis of
Plymouth, also a seaman, who was drowned in the forecastle.
The masts went by the board, and the brig righted, and Capt.
Collingwood and eighteen men were lashed to the wreck nine-
ty-six hours with only a barrel of sugar to eat. On the twen-
ty-third they battered down the hatches and bailed the vessel
out, and on the twenty- fourth set up jury masts. On the
twenty-fifth they obtained from the bark Newton of New
Bedford two spars and gear, and a quadrant, and finally, after
being on the wreck twenty-one days, were taken off by the
bark Clement.

The question is often asked, what becomes of all the vessels
that have been built? Upon this question official records
throw some light. The last accessible statistics show that
during the ten years from 1879 to 1889, nineteen thousand
one hundred and ninety United States vessels were wrecked

94

PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

on or near the coasts, or on the inland waters of the United
States, and during the same period, sixty-six hundred and
forty-one British vessels.
The following is an imperfect list of skippers since 1828 :

Benjamin Nye Adams
George Adams
George N. Adams
John Allen
George Allen
Winslow Allen
Thomas Atwood
Wm. Atwood
Solomon Attaquin
Coleman Bartlett
Frederick Bartlett
Nathaniel Bartlett
Benjamin Bates
Braman L. Bennett
John Briggs
Frederick Burgess
Henry Burgess
James Burgess
Phineas F. Burgess
Horatio G. Camera
A. R. Carnes
John Chase
John B. Chandler
Samuel Chandler
Ephraim F. Churchill
Joseph Churchill
Lionel Churchill
Edward Cough
Isaac Connors
James Cornish
Thomas E. Cornish
Edward Courtney
Ichabod Davie
Lemuel Doten
Nathaniel Doty
Horace J. Drew
Stephen D. Drew
Daniel Eldridge
Barnabas Ellis
Stephen Finney
Henry Gibbs
Grenville W. Griffin
John Griffin

Wm. Grindle
Frew Gross
Thomas Hannagan.
Branch Harlow
Charles Harlow
Richard W. Harlow
Nathan Haskins
Robert Hogg
Gideon Holbrook
Barzillia Holmes
George Holmes
Solomon M. Holmes
Isaac Howland
John Howland
Lemuel C. Howland
Abiatha Hoxie
Nathaniel Hoxie
Robert Hutchinson
Benjamin Jenkins
Wm. Jordan
James S. Kelley
Lewis King
Robert King
William King
Wellington Lambert
Wm. Langford
Moses Larkin
Ezra Leach
Lemuel Leach
David Manter
David L Manter
George Manter
Prince Manter
Owen McGahan
Jake McCarthy
Jerry McCluskey
Duncan McDonald
Eli H. Minter
George Morey
Wm. Morrisey
John Morse
Josiah Morton
Lemuel Morton

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN.

95

Levi P. Morton
Wixl Mullins
Grant C. Parsons
John Parsons
Ezra Pierce
Ignatius Pierce
Richard Pike
Calvin Raymond
Henry Rickard
Warren P. Rickard
Francis Rogers
George Rogers
David Robertson
Joseph Ross
Thomas Ryan
Andrew Sampson
Joseph Sampson
Nathan B. Sampson
Sylvanus Sampson
Angus Scott
Daniel Sears
Hiram B. Sears
Wm. Sears
Nathaniel Simmons

James Simmons
Wm. Stephens
Isaac Smith
Joseph Smith
Luther Smith
Peter W. Smith
Thomas Smith
— Sparrow
Isaac Swift
Philip Snow
Nahum Thomas
Lewis W. Thrasher
Oliver C. Vaughn
Perez Wade
John B. Walker
Robert Washburn
Solomon Webquish
John Whitmore
Samuel O. Whittemore
Joseph Whitten
Samuel M. Whitten
George R. Wiswell
Lemuel R. Wood
Edward Wright

There are several disconnected items which may be
mentioned in this chapter. The Sunbeam, sold a few years
ago, was employed in 1905 in carrying gravel from the
Gurnet to Boston, and the Sabine, sold at the same time, is used
as a house boat in Boston harbor by a Portuguese lobsterman.
The Maria of Plymouth, and the schooner R. Leach of Bucks-
port, Me., were the first United States vessels to use, in 1859,
trawls in salt fishing. It was a method of fishing introduced
by the French, and until the above date was looked upon as
an experiment. It may not be generally known that there is
a Plymouth Rock on the banks. It is laid down in "Sailing
Directions for the Island and Banks of New Foundland,'' etc.,
published in 1882, as one of the Eastern shoals, a group around
Nine-fathom Bank, which latter lies in latitude 46.26.45 N.
and longitude 50.28.06 W. Plymouth Rock has 15 fathoms of
water, and was named in honor of Capt. Burgess, of the
schooner Lyceum of Plymouth, who discovered it.

96 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

CHAPTER XI.

The following is a detailed account of the loss of
the Plymouth bark • Charles Bartlctt, which on the 27th of
June, 1849, was run down and sunk by the Cunard steamship
Europa. The incidents attending the disaster possess an in-
terest in themselves, while the trial in the English law courts
of a suit for damages brought by the owners of the bark in
the early days of ocean steam navigation, was an important
one, establishing as it did the duties of steam navigators and
their liability in damages for a failure to perform them.

The Charles Bartlett was a bark of four hundred tons, built
in Westbrook, Maine, and owned by Wm. L. Finney and others
of Plymouth. She left the Downs on the 14th of June, 1849,
bound for New York with a cargo of about four hundred and
fifty tons of iron, lead, etc., and with one cabin passenger and
one hundred and sixty-two in the steerage. Her officers and
crew were William Bartlett of Plymouth, Captain; Thomas
Parker of Charleston, S. C, first officer; Wm. Prince, second
officer, and George Parsons of Portland, Me., Wm Rich of
Gravesend, England, Isaac Hanson, James Fraser, John Bell,
Joshua Carey, Levi Hunt, Wm. Perry, John Jordan, John
Jackson and Harrison D. White, seamen. On the 27th of
June, in latitude 50.48 N., longitude 29 W., in a thick fog,
which gathered after the noon observation had been taken,
the bark was heading northwest with the wind west by south,
close hauled and all sails set. At half-past three the captain,
who was standing on the weather side of the poop deck, caught
sight of the steamship about one point forward of the beam,
and about four hundred yards distant. He ordered his helm
up and shouted to the steamer to port her helm. The officer
of the deck on the Europa, however, ordered his helm put to
starboard, which order was countermanded before the wheel
had been turned one round. If the starboard helm had pro-
duced any effect, it was of course to make a collision the more
sure, while if the helm had been at first promptly put to port
there is room for doubt whether, as the bark was all the

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 97

time going ahead, the steamer might not have slipped by her
stern without causing serious damage. As it was, the Europa
going at twelve and a half knots, struck the bark abreast of
her main shrouds in one minute after she was first seen, and
three minutes later the bark went down. The steamer's bow
entered to within a foot of the after hatch, tearing away
twenty feet of the bark's side, and suffering as her own damage
only the loss of her head knees and her foretopmast. At the
moment of the collision, about one hundred passengers were
on deck, and it was estimated that about one half of them were
killed by the impact. The captain and second officer and nine
of the crew and thirty passengers were saved, all but ten of
whom, who were picked up by boats, were saved by clinging
to the bows of the steamer, and climbing on board.

The Europa had a full passenger list, and the excitement
caused by the terrible scenes of the collision was followed by
a serious anxiety for the safety of their own vessel, which only
prompt investigations and the assurance of the officers that
the hull was uninjured could allay. Among the passengers
was Capt. Robert B. Forbes of Boston, who with that generous
impulse and heroic courage which had always characterized
him risked his life by leaping into the sea and aided in the
rescue of his drowning fellow men. For the service rendered
by him, a medal was presented to him by the Liverpool Ship-
wreck and Humane Society, and another by the Massachu-
setts Humane Society. The Cunard Steamship Company gave
twenty pounds toward the relief of the survivors of the Charles
Bartlett, and a free passage to America.

A suit was brought by the owners and underwriters to re-
cover damages estimated at twelve thousand pounds, and tried
in the English Admiralty Court, and the facts which I have
stated were presented to the court by the plaintiffs. The res-
ponsive allegation in behalf of the Europa, claimed that the
collision occurred in the usual track for steamers, but that it
was two or three degrees to the north of the usual track of
sailing vessels. It denied that there was a concentrating point
in the Atlantic, and alleged that the noise of the paddle wheels
might have been heard in the direction of the bark three or
four miles, and that it was owing to some negligence that the
bark was not therefore warned of the approach of the steamer.

98 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

It further alleged that though the third officer ordered the
helm to be starboarded, before the order could be obeyed the
order was revoked, and the wheel was directed to be put hard
a port. The engines were stopped so that before the collision
the steamer had come up to the wind a point and a half. It
was still further alleged that the bark was going from five and
a half to six knots an hour, having all possible sails set, and
had neglected to fire guns, blow her fog horn or ring her bell
at short intervals, so that those on board the steamer could be
cognizant of her approach.

The presiding judge, addressing his brethren of the Court,
said that these cases are becoming so numerous that it was for
the interest of the owners of ships that they should be decided
promptly. With regard to the burden of proof, it is of course
necessary for the plaintiff to present all the evidence reason-
ably within his power, but that after he has done that it rests
upon the other party to show that they have not been guilty
of the acts attributed to them. With regard to the distance at
which the vessels were seen by each other, and the time which
elapsed before the collision, nothing is more difficult than to
find consistent evidence. The conclusion of the allegation in
defense is in substance that the collision was either the result
of inevitable accident, or was the fault of those on board the
Charles Bartlett. What is an inevitable accident? Inevitable
must be considered as a variable term, and must be construed
with regard to the circumstances of each case. In almost
every case it is possible to avoid a collision by going at a slow
pace, or lying to during a fog, but the import of the words
"inevitable accident" is this, where a man is pursuing his law-
ful vocation in a lawful manner, and something occurs which
no ordinary caution could prevent. Continuing, the presiding
Judge said to his brethren of the Court, "It is very easy to de-
fine what is a lawful vocation, but it is not so easy to say what
is a lawful manner. The test is the probability of injury to
others, and that of course depends on circumstances, as for
instance the time and locality where the occurrences take place.
The object of our inquiry is whether in the case of the Europa
going about twelve and a half knots an hour in so dense a fog
that she could not see beyond one hundred and fifty or two
hundred yards, and in latitude 50.48 and longitude 29, there

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 99

was more than ordinary probability of meeting vessels. If
there was a reasonable probability of a collision, then beyond
all doubt she would be to blame. If, however, there was no
reasonable probability of meeting vessels in the track pursued,
she was nevertheless bound to take all necessary precautions
to insure safety. One of the most important questions as to
these precautions which we are to decide, is whether there was
or was not a sufficient lookout on board the Europa. The law
undoubtedly requires as a reasonable lookout the most ample
that could be adopted. Was there such a lookout on board the
steamer? According to the evidence the general practice on
the Europa in dense fogs was as follows : first to station an
officer on the foremost bridge ; second, his junior at the Con ;
third, a quartermaster at the wheel; fourth, a second hand in
the wheelhouse, and fifth and sixth, two lookouts on the top-
gallant forecastle. There is some evidence also tending to
show that a man was stationed in case of a fog on the lee side
of the bridge, and also a man. at the crank to convey orders to
the engine room. Now, the actual watch when the collision
occurred was as follows: Wardell, the second officer, was on
the bridge; Coates, a quartermaster, on the topgallant fore-
castle; White, at the wheel, and Fern, another quartermaster,
at the Con, and I do not find any other person on the lookout.
The second man is placed at the wheel so that in case of neces-
sity it may be turned as promptly as possible. There is an
entire absence of evidence as to whether at the time of the col-
lision there was in operation any means of communicating or-
ders to the engine room, or whether any orders were really
communicated." Continuing, the presiding Judge said : "You
will have to decide also whether there was more than one man
at the wheel, and lastly, whether the order to starboard the
helm, which is agreed on all hands to have been erroneous, did
or did not produce any effect in the case. Looking at the
rapidity with which the vessels were approaching each other,
the last mentioned consideration is one of importance."

With regard to the Charles Bartlett the Judge said, "Was
she carrying too much sail; was there a want of a sufficient
look-out, and above all is it your opinion that she ought to have
sounded a fog horn or rung a bell ? Whether she ought to
have heard the paddle wheels before she did, and neglected to

IOO PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

take measures to avert a collision, is one of the questions for
you to decide. But it is in evidence that even if she could
have heard them, no fog horn could have been heard on board
the steamer above the sound of the paddles."

The Court retired, and returning at the end of half an hour,
Dr. Lushington, the presiding Judge, then said : "In conjunc-
tion with the gentlemen by whom I am assisted, we have con-
sidered all the points in this case, which I have suggested as
necessary to be determined, and I trust that there has been no
omission as to any one of them. We have come unanimously
to the following determination: That no rate of sailing by
steamers or other vessels can be said to be absolutely danger-
ous ; but whether any given rate is dangerous or not, must de-
pend on the circumstances of each individual case, as the state
of the weather, locality and other similar facts. That the rate
of twelve and a half knots an hour in a dense fog in the locality
where this occurrence took place, must be attended with more
risk than a slower pace ; but assuming that it might be accom-
plished with reasonable security, and without probable risk to
other vessels, such rate of going could not be maintained with
such security, except by taking every possible precaution
against collision. That proper precaution was not taken by
the Buropa: First, she had not a sufficient look-out; second,
we think that no proper arrangement was made as to the en-
gines ; third, because no person was placed to report to the en-
gineers the orders as to the engines ; fourth, because no second
person was placed in the wheel house ; fifth, that the order to
starboard the helm was erroneous. We are of the opinion that
if proper precautions had been adopted, the accident might have
been avoided, and that the collision took place for want of the
proper precautions. With respect to the Charles Bartlett, we
are of opinion that a good look-out was kept on board; that
she discovered the approach of the Europa as soon as circum-
stances would permit ; that she adopted all proper measures to
avoid the collision by ringing the bell and putting the helm to
port. Therefore, T must pronounce against the Europa in this
case."

After the decision of the Court was read, Mr. Rothery, the
proctor for the Europa, gave notice of appeal. All appeals
from the Admiralty Court, which until the time of William

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. IOI

4th were made to the High Court of Admiralty, are now made
to the King in council, and are referred to the Judicial Com-
mittee of the Privy Council, which committee is composed of
the Chief Justice of the Court of King's Bench, the Master of
the Rolls, the Vice Chancellor of England, and other ex-officio
officers. The appeal in question was heard by Lord Justice
Cranworth, Lord Justice Sir James Knight Bruce, Sir Her-
bert Jenner Fust, and Sir Edward Ryan, and judgment was
delivered by Lord Justice Cranworth, December i, 1851. It
is unnecessary to relate the grounds of the judgment of the
committee, as they were for the most part the same as those
which entered into the decision of the Admiralty Court. There
is one part, however, to which I wish to refer, because it lays
down a rule for the guidance of ocean steam navigators, broad-
er and more exacting than any suggested by the Admiralty
Court. An important question in the examination of witnesses
was whether it would have been possible to stop the steamer,
or so far stop her as to enable her to get out of the way within
the distance between the two vessels when they were first seen
by each other. The preponderance of testimony was that she
could not if going twelve and a half knots an hour. The pe-
culiarity of this question is that an answer either in the affirma-
tive or negative would bear against the Europa. If she could
get out of the way and did not, she is to blame. If she could
not get out of the way, the committee say that "it follows as an
inevitable consequence that she was sailing at a rate of speed at
which it was not lawful for her to navigate." The judgment
closes as follows : "Their lordships have come to the opinion
that the accident was without default on the part of the Charles
Bartlett and was through the neglect of the Europa. The con-
sequences will be that the appeal will be dismissed with costs."
In closing the narrative of this important case it is pleasant
to remember the enconiums of the London press on the intelli-
gence and general demeanor of our late townsman, Capt. Wil-
liam Bartlett, as displayed by him during the trial. The mas-
ter mariners of New England were fortunate in having in a
foreign land so worthy a representative.

102 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

CHAPTER XII.

The migration from New England and the middle states to
California in 1849 and J&5°> was ont of ^e remarkable events
in the history of the American Union. It was one of those
events, of which the history of the world furnishes many ex-
amples, accomplishing in the end results far removed from the
purposes sought in their conception, and apparently carrying
out the designs of an overruling providence, in which man has
only served as its instrument. It is a question worthy of con-
sideration, whether the destiny of the American republic would
have reached its present measure of accomplishment, without
the inspiration which a mere thirst for gold served to excite.
It was another of those incidents, of which the Pilgrim coloni-
zation was a striking example, wheh reached its consummation
through the aid of the merchants of London, who were looking
merely for discoveries of ores of gold and silver to reward their
enterprise.

On the 9th of February, 1848, while three Americans were at
work repairing the race way of Sutter's Mill, on the American
fork of Sacramento river, a little daughter of Mr. Marshal, the
superintendent of the mill, picked up a lump of gold, and show-
ed it to her father as a pretty plaything. The discovery was too
important to be kept secret, and a letter written by Rev. C. S.
Lyman appeared in the March number of the American Jour-
nal of Science announcing it to the world. No news ever
spread more rapidly. In the New England states, and in
Massachusetts, especially, a wave of migration set in, which
was as strong in Plymouth as elsewhere. The time was fav-
orable ; the supply of labor was just then greater than the de-
mand, and the temptation to seek wealth in California became
almost irresistible. Those who at once made preparations to
go were the bone and sinew of the town, carpenters, masons,
painters and clerks, and for a time after their departure our
streets seemed almost deserted.

Among the first to leave were those who sailed in the Brig
Isabelle of Plymouth, Chandler Burgess, Jr. of Plymouth,

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 103

master, which sailed from New York, January 14, 1849. Her
passengers were : Ephraim Paty, Jr., James Burgess, Jr., Free-
man Morton, Jr., Stephen Pember, Winslow Morton, George
Morton of Plymouth, and twenty-one others.

The schooner Roanoke sailed from Boston, January 19,
1849, carrying Russell Bourne, John E. Sever and Frederick
Morton of Plymouth.

The Capitol from Boston sailed in January, 1849, with Ru~
fus Ball, Thomas Atwood, Thomas Wood, James A. Young,
Jacob Hersey, James M. Thomas, Daniel Bickford, George E.
Lugerder, Adam E. Stetson, George E. Burns, Tolman French
and one hundred and eighty-four others.

The Rochelle sailed from Boston, February 7, 1849, with
Daniel P. Bates, Wm. Churchill, Josiah Byram, David Gurney
and John T. Pratt.

The bark Diman sailed from New Bedford, February 8,
1849, with Hiram Churchill and Samuel D. Barnes.

The bark Yeoman of Plymouth, James S. Clark of Roches-
ter, master, sailed from Plymouth, March 18, 1849, with Geo.
Collingwood of Plymouth, mate, and the following members of
the Pilgrim Mining Company : Nathaniel C. Covington, presi-
dent; Francis H. Robbins, secretary; and Robert Swinburne,
Nathan G. Cushing, John E. Churchill, Henry Chase, Wm. Col-
lingwood, Wm. M. Gifford, A. O. Nelson, Franklin B. Holmes,
Nathan Churchill, James T. Collins, Nathaniel S. Barrows, Jr.,
Henry M. Hubbard, Henry B. Holmes, Alfred R. Doten, Ellis
Rogers, Ellis B. Barnes, George P. Fowler, Wm. Saunders,
Richard B. Dunham, Henry M. Morton, Caleb C. Bradford,
Silas M. Churchill, Elisha W. Kingman, Ozen Bates, Chandler
Dunham, James T. Wadsworth, Winslow B. Barnes, Thomas
Rogers, Edward Morton, Wm. J. Dunham, Augustus Robbins,
Sylvanus Everson, George A. Bradford, Seth Blankenship,
John Clark, Thomas Brown and John Ward. The Yeoman
was built as a brig in Plymouth, in 1833, and afterwards chang-
ed to a bark.

The Attila, Wm. W. Baker of Plymouth, master, sailed from
Boston in March, 1849, with the following passengers:
Timothy Allen, Charles H. Weston, Calvin Ripley,
Samuel Lanman, Ellis H. Morton, William Randall,
wood, Daniel F. Goddard, Charles T. Goddard, Isaac N. Har-

104 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

Manter, Allen Holmes, Joseph L. Weston, Ephraim Finney,
Abner Sylvester, Samuel Doten, Thomas C. Smith, Winslow
Bradford, Job Churchill, Samuel C. Chamberlain, Lewis Fin-
ney, George W. Virgin, Jr., Abram C. Small, Frederick Salter,
Alfred N. Primes, Isaac R. Atwood, W. Bradford, Josiah
Nichols, Charles W. Swift, John Leighton, Wm. Smith, Rufus
Holmes, James Joyce, Lucien Winsor, Henry Holmes, Henry
Lee, Samuel Alden, Benjamin F. Winslow, Frederick Bush,
James Carey, John L. Nash and Ambrose Harmon. The At-
tila was one hundred and seventy days on her passage to San
Francisco.

The ship Mallory sailed from New York, February 28, 1849,
with the following passengers, Thomas Rider, Richard T. Pope
and Frederick W. Lucas.

The ship Frances Ami sailed from Boston in April, 1849,
having as a passenger, John Haggerty.

The ship York sailed from Boston April 1, 1849, having as a
passenger, John A. Spooner.

The ship New Jersey sailed from Boston in May, 1849, hav-
ing Josiah Williams as a passenger.

The ship Iconium of Plymouth, Eleazer Stephens Turner,
master, sailed from Boston, June 1, 1849, with Horace Jackson
as a passenger.

The bark Helen Augusta sailed from Boston, August 15th,
with James Gorham Hedge as a passenger.

The steamship Chesapeake sailed from New York, August
9th, 1849, f°r Ae Isthmus with Gideon Holbrook.

The ship Harriet Rockwell sailed from Boston, September
18, 1849, with Stephen P. Sears.

The ship Cordova sailed from Boston, September 26, 1849,
having as passengers, Seth Morton, Jr., and wife ; Mrs. Anna
Bartlett and child, John B. Simmons, Daniel Williams, Wm. R.
Lanman, Ichabod Harlow and George White. The ship Per-
sian of Plymouth, Robbins, master, sailed from Baltimore in
May, 1849, with Charles Jackson as passenger.

The brig Sarah Abigail of Plymouth sailed from Plymouth,
November 13, 1849, with the following passengers, Capt. Josiah
Bartlett and wife, William Bartlett, Andrew Blanchard, Josiah
Drew, Josiah C. Fuller, Ephraim Holmes, John B. Colling-
wood, Daniel F. Goodard, Charles T. Goodard, Isaac N. Har-

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. I05

low, Calvin Raymond, Eleazer H. Barnes, Joseph B. Hobart,
Caleb Battles, Nathaniel Bradford, Thomas Diman, Wm. Bow-
en, Melzar Pierce, Clark Ellis, George Benson, Curtis Davis,
Hira Bates, John P. Perry and Elisha Holbrook.

Steamer Ohio sailed from New York for the Isthmus, Nov-
ember 17, 1849, with George O. Barnes.

Steamer name unknown, sailed from New York for the Is-
thmus in December, 1849, with Joseph Cushman.

The ship Samuel Appleton sailed from New York at an un-
known date in 1849, with the following passengers, Richard
Pope, Wm. W. Pope, and John Lawrence.

The ship Regulus sailed from Boston in 1849, with Daniel
Bradford, Thomas B. Bradford and Charles E. Bryant, and one
hundred and twenty others.

The ship Cheshire sailed from Boston in 1849, with Joseph I.
Holmes and Adoniram Bates.

The ship Sweden sailed from Boston in 1849, with Elisha
Whiting as passenger.

The brig Reindeer of Plymouth sailed from New York in
1849, with Dr. Samuel Merritt, James M. Bradford, Wm. C.
Bradford, CKarles Randall, Henry Raymond, Mr. Warren and
Laurence Cleales.

Steamer name unknown, sailed from New York for the Isth-
mus in 1849, with A. O. Whitmore, Samuel O. Whitmore, Cy-
rus Bartlett, Freeman Bartlett and Lewis Bartlett. By a route
unknown, Frank Sherman sailed.

Of the above named persons, one hundred and seventy-seven
in all, the following thirty-five were from other towns. Ab-
ington, James A. Young ; South Abington, John L. Nash ; Bos-
ton, Abram C. Small, Frederick Salter, Alfred N. Primes, Jos-
eph Nichols, Charles W. Smith and John Leighton; Bridge-
water, Benjamin F. Winslow; East Bridgewater, Josiah By-
ram, Frederick Bush, David Gurney, John T. Pratt, James
Carey, James M. Thomas, Daniel Beckford, George E. Lugen-
der, Adam E. Stetson, George E. Burns and Tolman French ;
Brooklyn, N. Y., John Ward ; Duxbury, Daniel Bradford, Ru-
fus Holmes, Samuel Joyce, Lucien Winsor, Hejiry Lee and
Samuel Alden; Kingston, Thomas B. Bradford, Sylvanus
Everson and George A. Bradford ; Plympton, Charles E. Bry-
ant ; Pulaski, N. Y., Ambrose Harmon ; Rochester, Mass., Seth

106 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

Blankenship, John Clark and Thomas Brown. Thus the num-
ber going from Plymouth was one hundred and forty-two,
which number would doubtless be increased by those of whom
I have no record. How many of those in the list of Plymouth
men are now living I have no means of ascertaining, but of
those who sailed in the Yeoman only two, George Collingwood
and Wm. J. Dunham now survive. The last of the Yeoman's
passengers to die was Alfred R. Doten, a brother of our towns-
men, the late Major Samuel H. and Captain Charles C. Doten,
who married in Nevada, and never returned to his native town.

Of Dr. Samuel Merritt, whose name is in the list of passen-
gers on board the brig Reindeer, I have something to say. An
account of the chief incidents in his career I had from his own
lips. He was a native of Maine, and came to Plymouth in
1845, and established himself in the practice of medicine. He
was a man six feet in height and large in proportion, frank and
honest in speech, hearty, but rough in manner, possessing great
will and energy, and calculated in every way to win the confi-
dence of the people. He was a bachelor, and at first had an
office on Main street, in the Bartlett building, where Loring's
watchmaker's shop now is. After Union building was built
on the corner of Middle street, he occupied two rooms on the
lower floor at the corner, one for an office, And the other for a
sleeping room.

When the California fever struck Plymouth it seized the
Doctor with great virulence. Aside from the temptations of
gold and sudden wealth, the idea of an expedition to the Pacific
shores appealed to his adventurous spirit, and he at once de-
termined to follow the wave of migration. Without a family
to consult, he began his preparations. Collecting his profes-
sional bills, he invested his capital in the purchase of a snug and
handy hermaphrodite brig of about one hundred and sixty tons,
owned, I think, by Joseph Holmes of Kingston, which was then
lying in New York. Having nearly finished loading her with
such merchandise as according to the latest advices was bring-
ing high prices, he found that he had about five hundred dol-
lars unexpended. This amount, or a considerable portion of
it, he determined to expend in tacks, so one afternoon he started
to go to Duxbury and make the purchase at the tack factory
carried on by Samuel Loring in that town. Before he reached

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 107

Kingston, he was overtaken by a messenger on horse back,
summoning him to return at once, and attend a man, who, while
engaged in painting the house of Capt. Nathaniel Russell at the
corner of Court Square, had fallen from a ladder, and was
thought to be seriously injured. As he had no time to spare
to go to Duxbury after that day, he lost the opportunity of
making a fortune in tacks, which he found on his arrival in
San Francisco were selling at five dollars a paper.

With such a number of passengers as he could easily accom-
modate in the cabin, he sailed from New York in the sum-
mer of 1849, and reached his destination in the autumn.
On the way up the Pacific coast a stop was made at Valparaiso,
and while there it occurred to the Doctor that it would be a
good plan to buy a lot of potatoes to fill up the hole which the
passengers and crew had eaten in the cargo. Starting one day
for the shore to make the purchase, a favorable wind sprung
up, and the Captain signalled to him to return. Thus another
good speculation was lost, for on his arrival at San Francisco
there was not a potato in the market. To his dismay the bot-
tom had tumbled out of the prices of nearly every other article
in his vessel, following for instance the price of lumber, which
had fallen from three hundred dollars a thousand to a price
lower than it could be bought for in Bangor. After disposing
of his vessel and cargo, and finding himself without capital, he
opened an office and began a practice, which he hoped to have
permanently abandoned. Doctors were fortunately as rare as
tacks and potatoes, and within a year his medical and surgical
receipts amounted to forty thousand dollars, a sum equivalent,
perhaps, to five thousand dollars in the East

One day a Maine Captain called at his office, who was ac-
quainted with his family at home, and in the course of conver-
sation, told him that he had a power of attorney to sell the brig
which he commanded, and wished the Doctor would buy it.
"No, I thank you," replied the Doctor, "I have had all the
brigs I have any use for, and I think I will keep out of navi-
gation." The captain called in occasionally afterwards, and
the Doctor in the meantime thought, as the people of San
Francisco suffered during the previous summer from the want
of ice, that it might be a good speculation to go into the ice
business in anticipation of the wants of the next summer. The

108 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

next time the Captain called he asked him if he had sold his
brig, and finding that he had not, he told him that he would
buy her if he would go in her to Puget Sound and get a load
of ice. The Captain agreed, and with a gang of men well sup-
plied with axes and saws, the vessel sailed. In due time the
Captain reported himself to the Doctor, who said, "Well, Cap.,
have you got a good load of ice?" "Ice, no" said the Cap-
tain, "not a pound; water don't freeze in Puget Sound; but
I wasn't coming home with an empty hold, so I put my
gang ashore and cut a load of piles." It so happened that
piles were much needed on the harbor front, and the
cargo sold at once at a big price, and the brig started off for a
second load. By the time the second load arrived, which prov-
ed as profitable as the first, other vessel owners had got wind
of the business, and the Doctor said, "now, Captain, we have
had the cream of this business, I guess we will let these other
fellows have the skim milk. You go up and get another load
and carry it over to Australia and buy a load of coal." In due
time again the Captain returned, but without a pound of coal,
saying, that finding he would have to wait a long time for
his turn to load, he thought it better to take his money for the
piles and go down to the Society Islands for a load of oranges,
six hundred thousand of which fruit he had on board. The
orange market at that time was completely bare, and the profits
of the voyage were heavy.

"Now, Captain, go up and get one more load, and carry it
down to Callao, and sell out everything, brig and all, and we
will close up our business, and you can go home." Thus by
good luck, aided largely by the shrewdness of his captain, Dr.
Merritt laid the foundations of a multi-millionaire's fortune. It
is needless to say that he closed his office and sought favorable
investments for his money. He bought land in Oakland
across the bay, laid out streets, built houses, and in time be-
came mayor of the city, whose foundation he had laid.

I saw the Doctor on his last visit East about six years ago,
and he then boasted of nothing so much as of his yacht, which
he said was the finest on the Pacific. I have recently read a
journal of Mrs. Stevenson, the mother of Robert Louis Steven-
son, of a six months' excursion in the Pacific for the benefit .of
her son's health in the yacht Casco, belonging to Dr. Merritt.

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. IO9

Her account of an interview with the Doctor illustrates his per-
sonalty and deportment which had more of the fortiter in re
than the suaviter in modo. She says, "Dr. M. has just been
here to settle the final business arrangements. He had heard
that Louis had a mother, and was not at all sure of allowing an
old woman to sail on his beloved yacht, so he insisted on seeing
me before he left. When I came in I found a very stout man
with a strong and humorous face, who sat still in his chair and
took a good look at me. Then he held out his hand with the
remark, 'You are a healthy looking woman.' He built the
yacht, he told me, for his health, as he was getting to stout that
some means of reduction were necessary, and going to sea had
pulled him down sixty pounds. The yacht is the apple of my
eye — you may think (to Fanny) your husband loves you, but I
can assure you that I love my yacht a great deal better.' "

Dr. Merritt died three or four years ago, and the last I heard
of his affairs was that his will was in litigation.

HO PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

CHAPTER XIII.

In an earlier chapter I gave a list of the streets, squares, lanes
and alleys, which existed in my boyhood, with the promise to
say something concerning the changes, which they had gone
through, and the houses and people and incidents associated
with them. I have since taken a passing glance at Court,
Main, Middle and North streets with the intention of referring:
to them again. In my treatment of Water street I have dwelt
in detail on its buildings and occupants.

The next street in order is Leyden street, the most interesting
of all the streets, associated, as it is with the first winter of the
Pilgrims, with the Common House, the store houses, and the
seven cottages, which with their walls of plank, their roofs of
thatch, and windows of paper, served as hospitals for the sick
and shelter for all. How far east and west the original street
extended is conjectural. It is probable that on the west it ex-
tended at least as far as the fort, which in 1622 was built near
the top of burial hill, and that within a year or two habitations
for single families were constructed on both sides of the street.
The easterly end of the original street is more doubtful. It
must be remembered that what we call ropewalk pond was a
part of the harbor, a broad cove or bay with a wide entrance
extending from a point on the south near the southerly corner
of the present foundry, to a point on the north near the souther-
ly end of the Electric Light building. It is probable that this
cove extended so far west that it felt the flow of the tide for
some distance above the present arch of Spring hill. It will
therefore be seen that this bay furnished an excellent boat har-
bor protected from the ocean blasts, and, being in close proxim-
ity to the store houses, was undoubtedly used as a landing
place for boats, plying to and from the Mayflower during her
stay in the harbor.

In view of these conditions it is probable that the original
street extended no farther east than the narrow way which may
still be seen on the easterly side of the house with a brick end
opposite the Universalist church, a way which is referred to in

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. Ill

ancient deeds, and which in my opinion led to the landing
place, and was used by the Pilgrims in reaching or leaving their
settlement by water. The first official laying out of Leyden
street was made in connection with Water street in 1716, and is
entered in the town records under date of February 16, 1715-16
old style, or February 26, 1716 new style. It is signed bj
Benjamin Warren, John Dyer, John Watson and Abial Shurt-
leff, selectmen, and reads as follows : "Then laid out by us
the subscribers, Town Wayes (viz) as followeth A street Call-
ed first street beginning att a stone sett into ye Ground att ye
Corner of Ephraim Coles smiths shop, from Thence to rainge
East 21 Degrees northerly To John Rickard's Corner bounds at
The brow of The hill, & from thence To a stone att ye foot of
the hill on the same Rainge The sd street is: 40: ffoots in
Weadth att The bounds first mentioned, and to carrey its
width till it comes to The Northerly Corner of Capt. Dyer's
house There being a stone sett into ye Ground & from Thence
To Rainge East Two Degrees Northerly To a stone sett into
the Ground att The foot of The hill a little above Ephraim
Kempton's house being the westerly corner bounds of the way
That leads over the Brook and from Thence Northeast: 16:
Degrees Easterly 40 : foots to A stone sett into The Ground a
little above John Rickard's upper Ware house, and from
Thence To Extend Northeast : 6 : Degrees Northerly one hun-
dred and Three foots to a stone sett into ye Ground being 16
Degrees Southeasterly 30 foots from a stone sett into ye
Ground at ye foot of the hill Neere or upon The Sootherly
Corner of John Ward's land on ye westerly side of The Way
That leads To ye New street Thence from sd stone To Extend
Northeast 5 Degrees Northerly 29 foots To another stone sett
in ye Ground in John Wards land & from Thence To Extend
North 20 Degrees Easterly To a stone sett into ye Ground att
ye North East Corner of Mr. John Watson's cooper's shop, and
from Thence to Extend North 7 Degrees Easterly to a stone
and poast sett into ye Ground above Thomas Dotyes Coopers
shop, and from Thence to Extend North 21 Degrees westerly to
a stone and poast sett in ye Ground above Thomas Doten's
cooper shop, and from Thence to Extend North : 25 : Degrees
Westerly to a stone and stake sett into ye Ground Within The
easterly corner bound of new street said stake and stones being

112 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

West, & eleven Degrees Northerly 36 foots from the Northerly
part of A Grat Rock yt lyeth below ye Way The sd Way from
ye stone att ye foat of ye hill neere the Southerly Corner of
John Ward's land is : 30 : foot in width Till it comes to ye stake
and stones at ye Easterly Corner of ye New streete." This
laying out is especially interesting as mentioning Plymouth
Rock.

A part of the smith shop of Ephraim Cole, at the corner of
which the above laying out began, is still standing, and may be
seen in the rear part of the express office on the corner of Main
street. The corner of John Rickard's land was at a point on
the stone wall opposite the middle of the alley next to the house
of Wm. .W. Brewster. Capt. John Dyer's house stood where
the brick end house stands, and the Ephraim Kempton house
stood about thirty or forty feet from the present street on the
lot now occupied by Mr. Blackmer's stable. It is probable
that the land in front of the house was kept open, and that the
way across the brook began at the corner of the narrow way
above mentioned just below the Dyer house, and crossing the
open space diagonally, passed east of the Kempton house to the
fording place. All through mv boyhood the Kempton house
was occupied by Mrs. Wm. Drew, who married for a second
husband in 1833, Isaac Morton Sherman, the father of Leander
L. Sherman, formerly the janitor of the Central Engine house.
Its removal many years ago marked one of the changes which
have occurred in Leyden street within my recollection.

Until, perhaps twenty-five or thirty years ago, there was an
ancient footway leading from Cole's Hill at a point nearly op-
posite the south front of the house of Henry W. Barnes, next
to the Universalist church, to Leyden street, directly opposite
to the way to the fording place above mentioned. That foot-
way doubtless ante-dated the opening of a way between Cole's
Hill and the water, and served to enable those who were oc-
cupying lots on North, then New Street, to make a short cut
over the hill to Leyden street, and thence to either the boat
harbor landing or across the ford to the south side of the set-
tlement.

The John Rickard land referred to in the laying out of Ley-
den street included all the land between LeBaron's alley on the
west, Leyden street on the south, and the footway on the east,

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 113

and extended to Middle street. It was occupied for one hun-
dred ^nd eighty-seven years by a house built in 1639 by Robert
Hicks, which was taken down in 1826, when the Universalist
Church was erected on its site. If it were standing today, as
it stood when I was four years of age, it would be the oldest
house in New England, and invaluable as a relic of the Pil-
grims. It was reached by a path or private way leading from
Leyden street, and this way was never laid out as a public way
until 1827, after the Universalist church was built. A picture
of this house may be seen in Mr. Wm. S. Russell's Pilgrim Me-
morials, where in accordance with tradition it is called the Al-
lyne house, after Joseph Allyne, who never owned it, but mere-
ly occupied it a short time as a tenant. It is often the case
that a passing and perhaps trifling incident fastens on a spot
or house a name, which has no rightful claim. I remember an
illustration of this, which made Hon. Isaac L. Hedge very in-
dignant. He was born in the house now occupied and owned
by Wm. R. Drew on Leyden street, and lived there until he was
married, the house remaining in the possession of his father
until his death in 1840, and of his mother until her death in
1849, ^d of their heirs until 1854, when it was sold. For a
short time after 1854, before it was sold to Mr. Drew, Zaben
Olney occupied it as a hotel. Mr. Hedge became entirely
blind, and employed John O'Brien to take his arm and walk
with him about the streets. One day in walking down Leyden
street he said : "Where are we now, John ?" "Right by the
old Olney house," John replied. Alas I "how soon are we for-
got." The names of the wharves are gone, and Jackson, Hedge,
Davis, Nelson and Carver have given way to Long, Pilgrim,
Atwood, Millar and Craig, to be christened again by succeeding
owners and occupants.

So far as the bounds of Leyden street are concerned, there
has been no change in my day except the widening mentioned
in a previous chapter at its junction with Water street. The
changes in houses have been numerous. The Turner house
above the old blockmaker's shop and Turner's Hall, has been
removed, and its site occupied bv the Electric Light Co. Near-
ly in front of it, a little below, near the westerly end of the
blacksmith's shop of Southworth and Ichabod Shaw was a pub-
He well, on which the neighborhood relied for good drinking

114 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

water. The aqueduct water delivered through wooden logs
from questionable sources, led our people to depend largely on
pumps or wells. These were scattered all over the town, eith-
er public or private, and even to the private wells householders
were permitted free access. There were public wells at the
foot of North street, and below the bank at the foot of Middle
street, and there was the town pump at the foot of Spring hill.
Besides these there were the county well, a well between the old
Lothrop house and Judge Thomas' house opposite the head of
North street, another between John Gooding's and Dr. Bart-
lett's houses on Main street, another in the yard of Capt. Win.
Rogers on North street, another in the rear of Jacob Jackson's
house on what is now Winslow street, which was known
as Jacob's well, and there was still another near the
sidewalk on Sandwich street, opposite the Green, between the
Elkanah Bartlett and Rogers houses. The wells on North
street and below Middle street were liable to be fouled by
drains, and their water was not used for drinking or cooking.
Before the introduction of South Pond water, the whalemen
and fishermen filled their water casks at a pump in the yard of
John Tribble's paint shop on Water street. But the well in
Leyden street was the one to which I was often sent when a
boy with two pails and a hoop to get our daily supply.

There was another old house near the so-called Allyne house,
which I well remember. It stood on the bank with its front
door on what is now Carver street, nearly opposite the easter-
ly side of the house of Henry W. Barnes, and was reached by
the way from Middle street. It was for many years owned
and occupied by Wm. Holmes, the father of the three captains,
.Samuel Doten, Truman Cook and Winslow Holmes, and after
his death, by his daughter Hannah, the wife of Laban Burt. It
was taken down forty or fifty years ago. The Universalist
church, and the parsonage east of it, stand on land bought of
Barnabas Hedge in 1826, with the agreement on the part of
Mr. Hedge that the bank opposite the church, which still be-
longs to his heirs should never be built on. The Universalist
Society was incorporated in 1826, and the church was dedi-
cated December 22, in that year. The sermon on the occasion
was preached by Rev. David Pickering of Providence. On the
afternoon of the same day, Rev. James H. Bugbee was ordained

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 115

pastor, the ordaining sermon being preached by Rev. John Bis-
bee of Hartford. Between the time of the organization of the
church, March 10, 1822, and the ordination of Mr. Bugbee,
Messina Ballou and Rev. Mr. Morse and others, preached to the
society in one of the town halls. Mr. Bugbee was followed by
Albert Case and Russell Tomlinson, who resigned in 1867, and
was followed by A. Bosserman, Alpheus Nickerson, George L.
Swift, A. H. Sweetzer and W. W. Hayward and others remem-
bered by my readers. The parsonage house was at one time
owned by Jeremiah Farris, and its sale by him to Roland Edwin
Cotton, unaccompanied by whittling or dickering, was some-
what characterstic of the purchaser. Mr. Farris meeting Mr.
Cotton in the street one day was asked by him what he would
sell his house for next to the Universalist church. Mr. Farris
named a price, taking care to name one high enough to allow
for a discount, and Mr. Cotton, without taking breath, prompt-
ly said, "Too much by half, I'll take it."

The house next above the Universalist church, long known
as the Marcy house, reminds me of a gentleman at one time
its occupant, who for many years filled a large space in
the social and official life of Plymouth, and performed else-
where distinguished service in behalf of the state. Jacob H.
Loud, born in Hingham, February 5, 1802, graduated at
Brown University in 1822 and after studying law with Eben-
ezer Gay of Hingham, was admitted to the bar at the Common
Pleas Court in Plymouth in August, 1825, and at once began
practice in our town. His first office was in the building at the
corner of Spring Hill and Summer street, which was taken
down a few years ago, from which place he moved in 1827 to
No. 3 Town Square, then called Market Square, which after-
wards became the post office when Bridgham Russell was ap-
pointed postmaster in 1832. He married May 5, 1829, Eliza-
beth Loring Jones of Hingham, and occupied for a time the
Marcy house above mentioned. From there he changed his
residence to the house next below Mr. Beaman's undertaking
rooms on Middle street, but in 1832 he bought a part of the
Lothrop lot opposite the head of North street, and built and
occupied the house- now owned and occupied by Mrs. F. B.
Davis. After the death of Beza Hayward, Register of Probate
of Plymouth County, which occurred June 4, 1830, he was ap-

Il6 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

pointed to succeed him, and held office until 1852. In 1853,
1854 and 1855, he was chosen by the legislature state treas-
urer. From 1855 to 1866 he was president of the Old Colony
Bank, State and National, Director of the Old Colony Rail-
road from 1845 to 1850, and again from 1869 until his death,
Representative in 1862, Senator in 1863 and 1864, State
Treasurer again by a vote of the people from 1865 to 1871,
and actuary of the New England Trust Co. of Boston until his
retirement in 1879." In 1871 he bought the house now owned
and occupied by Father Buckley, and occupied it during the
summer months until his death, which occurred in Boston,
February 2, 1880.

The next house built by James Bartlett, Jr., in 1832, has
been referred to in a previous chapter. It occupies a part of
the land given by Bridget Fuller and Samuel Fuller, the widow
and son of Dr. Samuel Fuller of the Mayflower, in 1664, to
the Church of Plymouth for the use of a minister. The east-
erly boundary of the land was the middle of the alley, long
known as LeBaron's alley. The house which up to 1832 stood
on the site now occupied by the house built by Mr. Bartlett,
was built by Lazarus LeBaron, and in my boyhood was occu-
pied by Dr. Isaac LeBaron, the grandson of Lazarus. Land
for the alley was thrown out by Lazarus LeBaron and James
Rickard, the owner of the adjoining estate, and was laid out
as a town way, September 7 and 10, 1832. At the time of the
Fuller gift there was a house standing on the lot which was
once owned by Rev. John Cotton, the pastor of the First
Church, and which afterwards was displaced by the house
built by Lazarus LeBaron.

The next house immediately west of the James Bartlett
house, stands on the site of a house built by Return Waite,
which when the present house was built not many years ago,
was removed to Seaside, and now stands a tenement house on
the easterly side of the road on land belonging to the heirs of
the late Barnabas Hedge.

As I have stated the land on Leyden street extending from
the estate of Wm. R. Drew to the centre of LeBaron's alley,
was given in 1664 by Bridget Fuller, widow of Dr. Samuel
Fuller of the Mayflower, and her son Samuel, to the church
in Plymouth for the use of the minister. A parsonage was

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 117

built on the easterly end of the lot, which was finally sold to
Rev. John Cotton, the pastor of the church. The house built
by Lazarus LeBaron on the site of the parsonage, which was
in turn succeeded by the house built in 1832 by James Bartlett,
Jr., and now occupied by Wm. W. Brewster, and also the
house adjoining the Bartlett house have been referred to, leay-
ing to be considered of the original Fuller land only that part
which is now occupied by the house of the late Harvey W.
Weston. When Rev. Chandler Robbins was settled over the
Plymouth Church in 1760, the Parish agreed to pay him a
salary of one hundred pounds, to give him the privilege of
cutting wood on the parish lot, and to build for him a parson-
age. The Weston house is the parsonage, built at that time.
It was occupied by Mr. Robbins until 1788, when he built a
house on the other side of the street, which he occupied until
his death, June 30, 1799.

Rev. James Kendall, the successor of Mr. Robbins, was
ordained January 1, 1800, and occupied the parsonagfe until
his death, which occurred March 17, 1859, and it was sold
the next year to Mr. Weston. Of Dr. Kendall, whose pastor-
ate extended through a period of sixty years, I cannot for-
bear to speak, as his life was one of the most important pas-
sages in the history of our town. It is difficult to realize that
more than a generation has been born, and has lived to nearly
midlde age, without a knowledge of his personality and a daily
observation of his character and virtues. He was born in
Sterling, Mass., in 1769, and after graduating at Harvard in
1796, occupied the position of tutor in Latin at Harvard until
he received an invitation to settle in Plymouth. At his ordina-
tion the sermon was preached by Rev. Mr. French of Andover,
and the other parts of the ceremony were performed by Rev.
Dr. Peter Thatcher, Rev. Dr. Tappan, Rev. Mr. Shaw and
Rev. Mr. Howland. In 1825 he received the degree of Doctor
of Divinity from Harvard, by whose government he was es-
teemed one of the distinguished incumbents of the ministry.
I was in my early youth impressed by the benignant traits in
his character and the purity of his life, as it was my fortune
when nine years of age to be for a few weeks a member of his
family, while my mother was passing a summer with her father
in Nova Scotia. I remember him sitting in his study in the

n8

PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

back west room, where if I happened to enter I was always
greeted with a kindly smile and a cheerful word ; I remember
him in the front east room on a chilly day sitting by a Franklin
stove, and often in the garden, which he tended with loving
and faithful care. There was a vein of humor in his com-
position, which, unlike that I have often seen repressed on the
Sabbath by ministers of the olden time, was too much the over-
flow of a contented and joyful spirit to be concealed on a day
to him the happiest of the week. As long as I can remember
he always carried a cane, which had descended to him through
James, his father, James, his grandfather, and Samuel, his
great-grandfather; from Thomas, son of Francis, who was
born in 1649 *n Woburn. This cane is now owned by his
grandson, Arthur Lord of Plymouth, and represents an own-
ership by seven generations of the same family.

I remember him in the old meeting house, which was taken
down in April, 183 1, officiating in black gloves with a sound-
ing board hanging over the 'pulpit, which I was in constant
fear would fall on the dear man's head. I remember well the
church itself, a large, square building with doors on three
sides, and a steeple surmounted by a copper rooster, the like
of which I have never seen since the day when in April, 183 1,
while workmen pulled the steeple over, it slipped off the spin-
dle and took its unaided flight to the ground. I remember the
square pews with seats, which were turned up in prayer time,
and let down with a slam when the prayer was over, and I
especially remember the spokes in the pew rails which we boys
turned in their dowels and made to squeak when we thought
that James Morton, the sexton, sitting at the head of the pul-
pit stairs, was either not looking or was asleep. And then
there was the choir, with Webster Seymour leading the sing-
ing, and I can see even now Simeon Dike, father of the late
Mrs. Samuel Shaw, drawing his bow across the bass viol,
which I think, with the violin and clarinet performed the in-
strumental music.

Of Dr. Kendall, it may be appropriately said as was said of

another :

"Pure was his walk, peaceful was his end;
We blessed his reverend length of days,
And hailed him in the public ways,
With veneration and with praise,
Our father and our friend."

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 119

The custom of wearing black gloves in the pulpit referred to
above, which had once been universal, was abandoned before
the middle of the last century, and I do not feel sure that Dr.
Kendall wore them in the new meeting house, built in 183 1.

With the estate of William Ryder Drew, some interesting
incidents are associated beyond the memory of most of my
readers. It was from his marriage in 1789 to his death in
1840, the residence of Barnabas Hedge, whom I remember
well. He was the last man in Plymouth to wear small clothes,
in winter with boots and tassels, and in summer with buckled
shoes. I remember only two gentlemen in Boston, Nathaniel
Goddard, who lived on Summer street, and a gentleman at
the south end, whose name was Wheeler, who wore small
clothes as long as Mr. Hedge. I am glad to see some indica-
tions of a return of a fashion too handsome and becoming
to have been permitted to go out. Mr. Hedge was one of the
founders of the Plymouth Bank in 1803, a Director from that
date, and President from 1826 until his death in 1840. The
house in question remained in the possession of the Hedge
family until 1854, when it was sold to Zaben Olney.

One of the most interesting features of the celebration on
the first of August, 1853, of the anniversary of the departure
of the Pilgrims from Delfthaven, was the visit of the New
York Light Guard with Dodsworth's band to Plymouth, and
their participation in the parade of the day. As the Hedge
house was then unoccupied it was made their headquarters.
The celebration took place on Monday, and the arrival of the
Light Guard, Sunday afternoon, and their march through
Court and Main and Leyden streets presented a spectacle
which so far as known, caused no protest from the spirits of
the Pilgrims against such an unusual observance of the Lord's
Day. Though I was Chief Marshal of the celebration, I have
no knowledge of the ceremonies at the headquarters, but as
the commander had a chaplain on his staff, it is to be presumed
that they were interesting and appropriate. Before the sale
of the house to Mr. Drew in 1858, Mr. Olney occupied it for
a short time as a hotel, which during the winter months when
the Samoset was closed, as was the custom in its earlier years,
was well patronized.

120 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

CHAPTER XIV.

Of the occupants of the houses not yet referred to on the
south side of Leyden street at various times within my mem-
ory, the first to be mentioned is Robert Roberts, who built the
house on the brow of the hill, now owned by Wm. S. Robbins.
Mr. Roberts was for many years a substantial merchant, en-
gaged in navigation and foreign trade, and was one of the
founders of the Plymouth Bank, of whose Board of Directors
he was a member from the time of its organization in 1803,
to his death in 1825. His sister Mary married John Clark,
whose daughter, Eliza Haley Clark, occupied the house in
question many years, and died December 23, 1882. I remem-
ber hearing when young a story about the source of a part of
Mr. Roberts's wealth which may have been, like so many stor-
ies about others, without any foundation in fact. The story was
that one of his vessels, either under command of himself or of
another, was in a French port at one period of the French
revolution and had taken on board the wealth of some refu-
gees who had planned to escape from the persecution of the
revolutionists, and sail for America, but that they were ar-
rested and guillotined, and that their property never claimed
by its owners, fell into the possession of Capt. Roberts and
other owners of his vessel.

The only change within my recollection in the occupation
of the next house, which has been for many years in the pos-
session and occupancy of Salisbury Jackson, and his children
and grandchildren, was the conversion in 1835 of one of the
rooms on the street floor by Mr. Jackson into a store, which he
opened in that year after having occupied for some years a
store in the Witherill building on the corner of Main street
and Town Square. In later years the store was abandoned,
and the building restored to its original condition. I associate
an old lady by the name of Johnson, who I think about 1830
occupied one or two rooms in the Jackson house, with a bon-
net called the Navarino bonnet, which had a great run for a
time among females everywhere, old and young. I wonder if

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 121

any of my readers remember as I do the Navarino bonnet?
The battle of Navarino, which secured Greek independence,
was fought October 20, 1827, in which the Turkish and Egyp-
tian navies were destroyed by the combined fleets of England,
Russia and France, and so great an interest was felt at that
time in Greek affairs that some ingenious originator of fashion
invented a bonnet made of paper resemblng cloth, and of the
prevailing shape, with a crown a little turned up behind, and
a front, which entirely concealed the face and chin from a side
view, to which in order to attract attention and sales he gave
the name of the battle. Every woman bought one, and every
woman wore one, the streets were full of them, and in the
meeting houses they were in their glory. But alas, they were
fair weather bonnets, and like the feathers of a rooster, wore
a most bedraggled and flopping appearance when exposed to
the rain. The fashion was short lived, and went out like that
of hoop skirts, as rapidly as it came in, while the world still
wonders what became of them. If any one of my readers has
one of these relics of bygone days, I would be glad to have it
to help my memory in recalling the appearance of my sisters,
when one day they reached home in a drenching rain.

Of Capt. James Bartlett, the occupant of the next house
west of the Jackson house from 1801 to his death in 1840,
and of Leander Lovell, his son-in-law, the next occupant, by
whose heirs it was sold in 1880, to recent owners, mention has
been made in previous chapters.

The site of the next house, owned and occupied by Mr. Wm.
H. H. Weston, is an especially interesting one. For its early
history, which it is unnecessary to repeat, my readers are re-
ferred to page 164 of the first part of "Ancient Landmarks of
Plymouth." On that spot James Cole kept an ordinary, for
which he was licensed in 1645. Judge Samuel Sewall refers
to it in his diary under date of March 8, 1698, in which occurs
the following entry : "Got to Plymouth about noon. I lodge
at Cole's; the house was built by Governor Winslow, and is
the oldest in Plymouth." The present house was built in 1807
by General Nathaniel Goodwin, and was occupied by him
until his death, March 8, 1819. In 1827 it was sold by his
heirs to Thomas Russell, who made it his residence until his
death, September 25, 1854.

122 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

General Goodwin was born in Plymouth in 1749, and while
engaged many years in iron manufactures, was more widely
known as an officer in the militia and military superintendent
for Plymouth county during the revolution. In the latter ca-
pacity he kept a record of enlistments in many of the towns
in the county, including Plymouth and Kingston, which is
more complete than the lists in the archives of the Common-
wealth. This record was given to me some years ago by his
grandson, the late Captain Nathaniel Goodwin, and has been
given by me to the Pilgrim Society. After the battle of Sara-
toga, fought on the 7th of October, 1777, General Burgoyne
and his army taken prisoners of war by General Gates, were
marched to Cambridge and placed in barracks on Winter and
Prospect hyis, while Burgoyne himself was quartered in the
Borland house in that town. General Goodwin was detailed
under General Heath to command the guard having charge
of the prisoners, and the following Plymouth men were en-
listed to form a part of the guard :
Nathaniel Barnes Eleazer Holmes, Jr.

Wm. Bartlett Samuel Holmes

Wm. Blakeley Daniel Howland

Wm. Cassady . Edward Morton

George Churchill Josiah Morton

Israel Clark Levi Paty

James Collins Ebenezer Rider, Jr.

Thomas Dogget Benoni Shaw

Lemuel Doten Nathaniel Torrey

Stephen Doten Benjamin Weston

Thomas Ellis John Witherhead

John Harlow, Jr.

General Goodwin and General Burgoyne became friends,
and as a memento of their friendship, Burgoyne gave to Gen-
eral Goodwin his rapier, which was also given to me by his
grandson, and is now a loan from me in the cabinet of the
Pilgrim Society. General Goodwin was like Mr. Roberts and
Mr. Hedge, an original subscriber to stock in the Plymouth
Bank in 1803, and was a Director from the date of its organi-,
zation until his death in 1819.

General Goodwin, I have always heard, was a man of fine
figure and bearing, and vain of his appearance, especially when
in uniform. His grandson, Capt. Nathaniel Goodwin, told me
the following story about him and his negro servant Pompey,

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 123

a freed slave, which illustrates the familiarity of the slaves
with their old masters and the characteristic vanity of the Gen-
eral. One muster day morning the General, wearing his regi-
mentals, said: "Pompey, how do I look?" "You look like a
lion, massa." "Lion, Pompey ; you never saw a lion." "Yes I
have, massa; massa Davis hab got one." "That isn't a lion,
you fool, that is a jackass." "I don't care, massa, you look
just like dat er animal."

Thomas Russell, who bought the above mentioned Goodwin
house in 1827, and occupied it until his death, was a brother
of Captain John Russell, mentioned in a previous chapter as
an enterprising ship owner, and married in 1814 Mary Ann,
daughter of William Goodwin, and their children were Eliza-
beth, born in 181 5, Lydia Cushing, 1817, who married Hon,
Wm. Whiting; Mary, who married Benjamin Marston Wat-
son of Plymouth ; William Goodwin, 1821, Thomas, 1825, and
Jane Frances, who married Abraham Firth of Bostop. Of
these children Mrs. Watson alone survives. Mr. Russell was
for many years the treasurer and manager of the Cotton Mill
at Eel River, established in 181 2. After his retirement from
that position, he was often the trusted adviser in the settle-
ment of estates, and in 1837 Mr. Barnabas Hedge, supposing
himself seriously involved in the liabilities of the Tremont
Iron Works in Wareham, in which he was largely interested,
made an assignment to his son-in-law, Charles H. Warren
and Mr. Russell for the security of his indebtedness. Mr.
Hedge was, however, under the management of his assignees
extricated from his embarrassments, and was left with a hand-
some fortune. In accordance with the provisions of law then
in force, Mr. Russell was chosen by the legislature in 1842
Treasurer and Receiver General of the Commonwealth, and
again in 1844. If is worthy of mention that within eighty-five
years from the adoption of the constitution in 1780 to 1865
three citizens of Plymouth should have served as treasurer
during a period of fourteen years. These were Thomas Da-
vis, from 1792 to 1797, Thomas Russell in 1842 and 1844, and
Jacob H. Loud in 1853 and 1854, and from 1866 to 1871. If
the term of Hon. Nahum Mitchell of East Bridgewater of five
years from 1822 to 1827 be added, the county of Plymouth
was represented in the treasurer's office more than a quarter
of the time.

124 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

The various occupants of the site on which the Baptist
church stands, are deserving of notice. The house, taken
down when the church was erected in 1865, was built in 1703
by Dr. Francis LeBaron, who was a passenger in a French
vessel wrecked on Cape Cod in 1694, and settled in Plymouth.
A family tradition says that he was a Roman Catholic, and
was buried with a cross on his breast, but Mrs. James Hum-
phrey of New York told me that her grandmother, Elizabeth
wife of Ammi Ruhama Robbins of Norfolk, Conn., who was
a granddaughter of Dr. LeBaron, told her that the Doctor was
a Huguenot. It is a singular fact that one hundred years later
in 1794 or 1795, another French vessel was wrecked on Cape
Cod, on which there was a passenger named LeBaron, whose
descendants are living in one or more of the southern states.
From Francis LeBaron the house descended to his son, Dr.
Lazarus LeBaron, who sold it in 1765 to Nathaniel Goodwin,
the husband of his daughter, Lydia. From Nathaniel Good-
win it descended to his son, General Nathaniel Goodwin,
who occupied it until, in 1807, he built and occupied
the W. H. H. Weston house. The General leased
the house to John Bartlett and William White, who
occupied it as a tavern. I have no knowledge as to who
John Bartlett was, but William White came from New Bed-
ford, having married Fanny Gibbs of Wareham, and was tfie
father of Arabella White, who married the late Capt. Nathaniel
Goodwin. I have no means of knowing precisely when Bart-
lett and White terminated their lease, but it is certain that in
October, 1818, John H. Bradford kept a tavern in the house,
as on the 9th of that month George Cooper, clerk of the Stan-
dish Guards, notified the members of the company to meet on
the 21st at the house of John H. Bradford. At first the tavern
was called as above, "the house of John H. Bradford/' but later
it came to be called Bradford's Tavern, and was so called until
it was sold in 1857. It was a stately mansion. Its broad
front, its spacious doorway, its broad hall, and its large wains-
cotted rooms, told the story of its ancient grandeur. There
the "daughters of Lazarus" reigned as queens, and the fashion
of the town engaged in the minuet of the olden time.

John Howland Bradford, or Uncle Johnny, as he was affec-
tionately called, the landlord during a period of forty years,

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 125

perhaps more widely known than any landlord of his time,
was born in Plymouth, July 14, 1780, and never married. He
was an interesting character, such as only an old New England
town could produce, with only an ordinary public school edu-
cation, but under the moral influences of an enlightened Chris-
tian home, he grew into manhood with habits of truth, indus-
try, kindness of heart, and correct living, which no wordly
influences could weaken. No better man has within my ob-
servation ever lived. His sphere of life was narrow, but he
filled it full. Let every man do this and the machinery of
social life will run without friction or jar. I never knew of
his attendance at any church, and I do not believe that any
theological question ever presented itself to his mind. His
character, however, was such as Christianity seeks to form,
and as long as it is formed, it is not worth while to ask whether
it be the result of the lessons of Christianity acting directly
on the man, or on those under whose ministrations his habits
have been formed. When he died, December 7, 1863, we mSLY
be sure that the promise made to the pure in heart was kept
that "they shall see God."

The hostess of Bradford's Tavern was_Mrs. Abigail (Leon-
ard) Hollis, wife of Henry Hollis and daughter of
Thomas Leonard, of Plymouth. Mr. Hollis came from
Weymouth and married his wife in 1819. He died
March 9, 1838, and his widow died September 27, 1859.
Two of their children were John Henry, a merchant in
New York at the time of his death, and our late townsman,
William T. Hollis. I have no recollection of Mr. Hollis, or
his occupation, but I have no doubt that he was connected
in some capacity with the tavern. His wife was a strong
minded, vigorous woman, and was the mainstay in everything
connected with the domestic concerns of the house. Her old-
est son, John Henry, was my schoolmate in the High school,,
and I can testify to the care she bestowed on his moral and
intellectual instruction. The inscription on her gravestone:

"Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die,"
was not only intended as the statement of a general truth,
but also as a recognition of its truth as specially applicable to
her.

Among the guests at Bradford's Tavern the memory of

126 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

some lingers in my mind. When I was quite young, perhaps
about the year 1830, a stranger arrived at the tavern on the
evening stage from Boston, who was destined to keep the
tongue of gossip wagging for some time. He Was somewhat
portly, but moderate in height, and dressed in linen and broad-
cloth of immaculate neatness and fashionable in style. His
name was Surrey, but the register contained no place of resi-
dence. Occasional visitors for a day or two were not uncom-
mon, and excited no remark, but when this stranger remained
for a week or more with neither acquaintance nor business to
protract his stay, the gossips began to wonder who he was,
whence he came, to what nationality he belonged, and what the
purpose of his visit could be. In suitable weather he took his
morning and evening walk about the town, making no visits,
entering no store or church or public meeting, and asking no
questions concerning the town or people. From his dignified
bearing he won the name of Lord Surrey, and was never re-
ferred to by any other name. He made occasional excursions
to Boston, where apparently he received funds, and bought
new clothes. He paid his board promptly, and his habits and
demeanor were beyond criticism. At the end of a year he left
town and gossips were left to wonder where he had gone,
whether he was a refugee from abroad, or whether he was
merely an eccentric man who was floating about the world
at the dictate of a capricious will.

I remember another visitor at the tavern quite as mysteri-
ous, a man of gentlemanly appearance, who could not speak a
word of English, and who remained six months without dis-
closing his nationality, and went as he came, a stranger in a
strange land. Mr. Salisbury Jackson, whose humor led him to
speak of every day incidents in a manner to amuse his hearers,
in describing a visit to the unknown, said that he tried him in
French, but found that he was not a Frenchman. He then
tried him in Spanish, but he was not a Spaniard. He then
tried him in German, but he was not a German. He then,
after failing to make him out an Italian, tried him in the ori-
ginal tongue and fixed him. No efforts of available linguists
could fix his nationality more successfully than the humor of
Mr. Jackson, and he went as he came, and was for a long time
remembered as the mysterious stranger.

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 127

In 1857 the tavern house was sold to Wm. Churchill, who
sold it to Wm. Finney, who resold it to Mr. Churchill, from
whom it was bought by the Baptist Society in 1862. From
1857 to the date of his death, December 7, 1863, Mr. Bradford
boarded with Jacob Howland, who occupied chambers in the
Witherell building on the corner of Main street and Town
Square.

I have spoken of Pompey, a colored servant, once a
slave of General Nathaniel Goodwin, with whom he
lived in the old tavern house. He died within my rec-
ollection, and I think he was the last of the old slaves living
in Plymouth. I remember his living with Nathaniel Good-
win, Cashier of the Plymouth Bank, who lived in what was
called the bank house, which stood on Court street, where the
Russell building now stands. Prince, whom I also remember,
was once a slave of Dr. Wm. Thomas, and lived until his
death, after the death of Dr. Thomas, with his son, Judge
Joshua Thomas, who died January 10, 1821, and afterwards
with his widow, in the house now occupied as an inn, called
the Plymouth Tavern. There is no reason to doubt that the
institution of slavery was recognized, and as firmly upheld in
Plymouth as in other considerable towns in the northern
states. So far as the slave trade was concerned, though it
was. abolished by an act of Congress in 1808, there is reason to
believe that in the town of Bristol, R. I., within the limits of
the original Plymouth Colony, until by a Royal Commission
in 1 75 1, that town was taken from Massachusets and added
to Rhode Island, it was pursued until 1820. In that year Con-
gress declared the trade to be piracy, and Captain Nathaniel
Gordon, engaged in the trade, was in November, 1861, convict-
ed and executed in New York. It was the generally entertain-
ed belief that one or more citizens of Bristol were engaged in
the trade, which led Mr. Webster to make the following de-
nunciatory reference to the trade in his memorable oration
delivered in Plymouth on the celebration in 1820 of the anni-
versary of the Landing of the Pilgrims. "It is not fit that the
land of the Pilgrims should bear the shame longer. I hear
the sound of the hammer ; I see the smoke of the furnace where
manacles and fetters are still forged for human limbs. I see
the visages of those who by stealth and midnight labor in this

128 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

work of hell foul and dark, as may become the artificers of
such instruments of misery and tortures. Let that spot be
purified, or let it cease to be of New England. Let it be puri-
fied or let it be set aside from the Christian world ; let it be
put out of the circle of human sympathies and human regards,
and let civilized man henceforth have no communion with it.'9

Slavery existed in Massachusetts until the adoption of its
constitution on the 15th of June, 1780. Article first of the
"declaration of the Rights of the Inhabitants of the Common-
wealth" declared as follows: "All men are born free and
equal, and have certain natural, essential and unalienable
rights, among which may be reckoned the right of enjoying
and defending their lives and liberties ; that of acquiring, pos-
sessing and protecting property; in fine, that of seeking and
obtaining their safety and happiness."

Whatever may have been the intent of the framers of the
constitution in constructing the above article, the Supreme
Court of Massachusetts decided as early as 1781 in the case
of Walker vs. Jennison that slavery was abolished in Massa-
chusetts by the declaration of rights, and that decision has
been repeatedly confirmed by later ones. But singularly
enough, notwithstanding these decisions a slave was sold by
auction in Cambridge as late as 1793. Precisely how many
slaves there were in Plymouth when the constitution was
adopted, I have no means of knowing, but it is certain that, as
elsewhere at the North where soil and climate and public
opinion were unfavorable, the number had been for some years
gradually lessening. The growth of slavery at the south was
however astonishing. It has been estimated that at various
times forty million slaves were taken from the shores of
Africa, and at the first census in 1790, there were 697,897
slaves in the United States. This number increased to 893,-
041 in 1800, to 1,191,369 in 1810, to 1,538,022 in 1820, to 2,-
009,043 in 1830, to 2,487,455 in 1840, to 3,204,313 in 1850,
and to 3,953,760 in i860.

I have seen an assessor's record for the year 1740, which
states that in that year there were thirty-two slaves in Plym-
outh between the ages of twelve and fifty, from which it may
be fair to assume that there were at least fifty of all ages.
The following were the owners in the above year:

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. I29

Robert Brown, one; Samuel Bartlett, one; Timothy Trent,
one ; James Hovey, one ; Hannah Jackson, one ; Samuel Kemp-
ton, one; Isaac Lothrop, four; Thomas Jackson, two; Lazarus
LeBaron, two; John Murdock, one; Thomas Murdock, one;
Job Morton, one; Ebenezer Spooner, one; Haviland Torrey,
one; David Turner, one; James Warren, one; John Watson,
one; James Warren, Jr., one; Rebecca Witherell, one; Seth
Barnes, one; John Bartlett, one; Stephen Churchill, one; Wm.
Clark, one; Nathaniel Foster, two; Sarah Little, one; Joseph
Bartlett, one.

The following slaves are mentioned in the town records at
various dates:

Caesar, Hester, Eunice, Philip and Esther, slaves of Ed-
ward Winslow in 1768 ; Cato and Jesse, slaves of John Foster
in 1731 ; Britain, slave of John Winslow in 1762 ; Cuffee, slave
of Isaac Lothrop in 1768; Nanny, slave of Samuel Bartlett in
1738; Hannah, slave of James Hovey in 1762; Cuffee, slave
of George Watson in 1768; Dick, slave of Nathaniel Thomas
in 1731 ; Phebe, slave of Haviland Torrey in 1731 ; Dolphin,
slave of Nathaniel Thomas in 1731 ; Flora, slave of Priscilla
Watson in 1731 ; Eseck, slave of George Watson in 1757;
Rose, slave of William Clark in 1757; Prince, slave of Wm.
Thomas in 1771 ; Plymouth, slave of Thomas Davis in 1753 ;
Nannie, slave of Deacon Foster in 1741 ; Jane, slave of Thomas
Jackson in 1760; Jack, slave of Thomas Holmes in 1739;
Patience, slave of Barnabas Churchill in 1739 ; Pero and Han-
nah, slaves of John Murdock in 1756; Quamony, slave of
Josiah Cotton in 1732; Kate, slave of John Murdock in 1732;
Quash, slave of Lazarus LeBaron in 1756; Phillis, slave of
Theophilus Cotton in 1751 ; Silas, slave of Daniel Diman in
1772; Venus, slave of Elizabeth Edwards in 1772; Pompey,
slave of Nathaniel Goodwin in 1775 ; Caesar, slave of Joshua
Thomas in 1779; Venus, slave of Elizabeth Stephens in 1772;
Quba, slave of Barnabas Hedge in 1775; Plato, slave of un-
known in 1779; Ebed Melick, slave of Madame Thatcher of
Middleboro.

Besides Pompey and Prince, Quamony Quash, an old slave,
commonly called Quam, lived within my remembrance, and
died April 18, 1833. Most of the slaves emancipated by the
constitution, accepted their freedom, and so far as I know, only

130 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

Pompey and Prince continued as servants of their old masters.
A few of them squatted on land belonging to the town of
Plymouth, which on that account took the name of New
Guinea. Among these were Quamony, Prince, Plato and
Cato, but it is probable that Prince divided his time between
his home at New Guinea and the house of his old master, where
I remember him a faithful servant of the widow of Judge
Joshua Thomas.

It is not improbable that Plymouth was associated with the
first claim made on a citizen of Massachusetts for the restora-
tion of a slave to his master. Information concerning it I
found among my grandfather's papers. In 1808 the brig
Thomas, Solomon Davie master, at some port in Delaware, re-
ceived on board a slave who had deserted from his master,
David M. Mcllvaine, and until 1812 remained in my grand-
father's service, receiving wages as a hired man. In 1812
Mr. Mcllvaine found the slave on board the brig in Baltimore,
and a claim for his restoration being made, he was given up.
In the meantime the slave who called himself George Thom-
son, bought a small house on the brow of Cole's Hill, and in a
settlement of a suit to recover wages, which my grandfather
had paid to Thomson, Mr. Mcllvaine, in consideration of the
money paid, conveyed to my grandfather the house, and the
following articles of personal property, which were in the
keeping of a colored woman, named Violet Phillips, and were
the property of Thompson— a blue cloth coat, fine; a black
cloth coat, fine ; one pair of ribbed velvet pantaloons ; one black
bombazet trousers ; one white shirt ; one white waistcoat ; one
black bombazet waistcoat; one black silk waistcoat; three yel-
law marseilles waistcoats ; one pair white cotton stockings ; two
checked shirts ; one new fur hat ; one chest, and one trunk in
which were the title papers to his house, and one silver watch.

Of many stories about these old slaves I have room for only
one. When the use of biers, instead of hearses was universal,
occasionally two of these freedmen would be hired as bearers.
On one occasion, when Quamony and Plato were employed,
they had heard that gloves were given to the bearers, and just
as the procession was about to start, Quamony said to Plato,
"Hab you hab'm glub?" "No," said Plato, "I ho hab'm no
glub." "Nor I hab'm glub nudder," said Quamony, "We no
bare widout glub, let the man in the box carry hisself."

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 131

CHAPTER XV.

The house adjoining the Baptist church, now occupied by
the Custom House, recalls next to the house on Cole's Hill, in
which I was born, the pleasantest associations, and the dearest
memories. In that building my grandfather William Davis,
born July 15, 1758, lived from 1781, the year of his marriage,
until January 5, 1826, the date of his death. He was the son
of Thos. Davis, and one of a family of one daughter and six
sons, Sarah, Thomas, William, John, Samuel, Isaac P. and
Wendell. Sarah, born June 29, 1754, married LeBaron Brad-
ford of Bristol, son of William Bradford, United States sena-
tor from the state of Rhode Island.

Thomas Davis, born June 26, 1756, was a representative from
Plymouth, senator from Plymouth County, senator from Suf-
folk County, treasurer and receiver general of the Common-
wealth from 1792 to 1797, and president of the Boston Marine
Insurance Company from 1799 until his death, January 21,
1805. I have on my walls the barometer which hung in the
insurance office at the time of his death.

John Davis, born in Plymouth, January 25, 1761, graduated
at Harvard in 1781, and entered the legal profession. He was
the youngest member of the convention on the adoption of the
state constitution, and in 1796 was appointed by Washington
comptroller of the United States Treasury. In 1801 he was
appointed by John Adams, Judge of the United States Court
for the district of Massachusetts, and continued on the bench
forty years. He was treasurer of Harvard College from 1810
to 1827, a Fellow of Harvard from 1803 to 1810, and Presi-
dent of the Massachusetts Historical Society from 1818 to
1843. He died in Boston, January 14, 1847.

Samuel Davis, born March 5, 1765, was a well known anti-
quarian, a learned linguist, and a recognized authority on ques-
tions relating to Indian dialects. He was a member of the
Massachusetts Historical Society, recipient of an honorary de-
gree from Harvard in 1819, and died in Plymouth, July 10,

132 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

1829. He is worthily commemorated by the following inscrii*-
tion on his gravestone on Burial hill :

"From life on earth our pensive friend retires,

His dust commingling with the Pilgrim sires;

In thoughtful walks their every path he traced,

Their toils, their tombs his faithful page embraced,

Peaceful and pure and innocent as they,

With them to rise to everlasting day."

Isaac P. Davis, born October 7, 1771, was for many years an
extensive manufacturer in Boston, owning a rope walk on the
mill dam, now Beacon street, and perhaps was more widely
known socially in Boston than any man of his time. He was
a friend of artists, and a patron of art, whose judgment and
taste were freely consulted by purchasers. Stuart, the portrait
painter, was his intimate friend, and the horse in the Faneuil
Hall picture of Washington, is a portrait of a horse owned by
Mr. Davis. After the completion of the picture he presented
the study from which it was painted, to Mr. Davis, a picture
about 20 by 24 inches, which after the death of Mrs. Davis was
sold by Josiah Quincy, and myself, her executors, to Ignatius
Sargent, for three thousand dollars. The friendship between
Mr. Davis and Mr. Webster may be judged by the following
affectionate dedication to him of the second volume of Mr.
Webster's works, published in 1851.

My dear Sir :

"A warm, private friendship has existed between us for more
than half our lives interrupted by no untoward occurrence, and
never for a minute cooling into indifference. Of this friend-
ship, the source of so much happiness to me, I wish to leave, if
not an enduring memorial, at least an affectionate and grateful
acknowledgment. I dedicate this volume of my speeches to
you. Daniel Webster."

Wendell Davis, the youngest brother of my grandfather, born
February 13, 1776, graduated at Harvard in 1796, and was
clerk of the Massachusetts senate from 1802 to 1805. He
studied law with his brother John, and settled in Sandwich.
He served by appointment of the Governor as sheriff of Barn-
stable county, and died, Dec. 30, 1830. He was the father of
Hon. George T. Davis of Greenfield, whom Thackery declared
the most brilliant conversationalist he had ever met.

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 1 33

My grandfather, William Davis, born July 15, 1758, was
trained in the business of his father, Thomas Davis, who was
largely engaged in navigation and foreign trade, and with
whom he became associated. After the death of his father,
March 7, 1785, he continued the business of the firm of Thomas
and William Davis with marked success until his death. Not-
withstanding the depressing effects of the embargo, and the
war of 1812, from which many suffered, I have been unable to
discover in his files of business letters any indications of
serious injury to his vessels or his trade. My father, William
Davis, who died March 22, 1824, at the age of forty-one, was
for some years associated with his father in business. My
grandfather was representative and member of the executive
council, and twenty-five years a member of the board of se-
lectmen. It is perhaps worthy of mention that the services of
members of four generations of my family as selectmen, cover
a period of fifty-two years. Mr. Davis was also one of the
founders of the Plymouth Bank, and its President from 1805
until his death, and one of the founders of the Pilgrim So-
ciety, and its first Vice-president.

Before leaving my grandfather's family I trust that I may
be excused for referring to his daughter Betsey, or Elizabeth,
as she was called late in life. She was born in the house un-
der discussion, October 28, 1803, and until thirteen years of
age attended private schools in Plymouth. After that time
for three years, until she was sixteen, she attended the school
of Miss Elizabeth Cushing, in the family of Deacon Wm. Crush-
ing of Hingham. Miss Cushing's school was probably not
surpassed by any ladies' school in the country, and there a
solid foundation was laid, which served my aunt so well as
the wife of Mr. Bancroft, during his services as minister at
London and Berlin. History, geography and public affairs
were her special subjects of study, and while in London
it was said by Englishmen, that she was so familiar with Eng-
lish politics as to be able to discuss them, and hold her own
with the leading statesmen of the Kingdom. To show the ex-
tent of her early reading, when a girl, or a young woman, she
listened one Sunday to a sermon preached in the Plymouth pul-
pit by a minister of a Plymouth County town exchanging with
Dr. Kendall, which was much admired. It seemed to her that

134 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

she had read it somewhere, and on going home, succeeded in
finding it in a volume of sermons by Rev. Newcome Cappe, an
English clergyman, who became pastor of a dissenting congre-
gation in York and served from 1756 to near the end of the
century. After looking the sermon over and verifying her
suspicions of a wholesale plagiarism, she laid the book down
on the centre table with the title in plain sight. In the even-
ing the clergyman called at the house, and during his visit,
much to the embarrassment of the hostess, and doubtless to his
own bewilderment, sat with the book at his elbow, and the
title staring him in the face. I prefer not to mention his name,
but my older readers may identify him when I say that in-
variably when he preached in Plymouth, as he often did, he se-
lected for one of his hymns that from Peale Dabney's collec-
tion, with the familiar verse :

"Mark the soft falling snow,
And the diffusive rain;

To heaven from whence it fell,

It turns not back again;

But waters earth through every pore,

And calls forth all her secret store."
She married in 1825, Alexander Bliss, law partner of Daniel
Webster, who died July 15, 1827, and in 1838, married George
Bancroft, the historian, who found in her efficient aid in the
performance of his duties as secretary of the Navy, under
President Polk, as minister to England from 1846 to 1849, an(*
later as minister to Berlin.

It was my fortune to be in London in the month of Feb-
ruary, 1847, during her residence there, and to receive from
her and Mr. Bancroft many acts of kindness. It was during
the Irish famine, and a benefit was planned to be held at Drury
Lane Theatre, to add to the Irish charitable fund. There was
no public sale of tickets, but a committee took the house from
parquette to ceiling, and sent tickets for whole boxes to such
members of the nobility as were available, and to the diplo-
matic corps, with prices affixed, which of course were taken
regardless of cost in the nature of subscriptions, and tickets for
the parquette to such single persons as they thought expedient.
Mr. Bancroft's box containing four chairs, was occupied by
himself and Mrs. Bancroft, Henry H. Milman, then distin-
guished as an historian, poet and dramatic writer, and Profes-

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 135

sor of poetry at Oxford, but later known as Dean of St. Paul's,
and myself. In the dramatic world Mr. Milman was known
as the author of the tragedy of Fazio, which I have seen played
at the old Tremont theatre by Forrest and the elder Booth.
The royal box, directly opposite in the same row, was occupied
by Queen Victoria, Prince Albert, and the Duke of Cambridge.
In the box next to the royal box were the Duke of Welling-
ton and the Marchioness of Douro, while others whom I re-
member in other boxes were the Duke of Devonshire, the Earl
of Westminster, the Duke of Norfolk, Hon. Mrs. Norton, Sir
Robert Peel, Lord John Russell, Lord Lyndhurst, Macaulay,
Hume, and Lord George Bentinck. I was undoubtedly the
only American in the house, and probably the only one in the
audience whom the society reporter of the Times could not call
by name.

At a dinner at Mr. Bancroft's, I had an opportunity of meet-
ing Thomas Carlyle, and I was astonished at his bitter denun-
ciation of men and events, and his almost brutal speech. While
the Irish question was under discussion, Duncan C. Pell of
New York, one of the guests, asked him what he would do with
the Irish, and bringing his hand down roughly on the table
he growled out, "I would shoot every mother's son of them."
I could not help contrasting his coarseness with the sweet and
gentle spirit of Ralph Waldo Emerson, his friend on our side
of the ocean.

Through the kindness of Mr. Bancroft I had an opportunity
of seeing most of the above named statesmen in their seats in
Parliament during a discussion on the corn laws, with the ad-
dition of Daniel O'Connell, who upon the whole, I think, was
the most striking looking man I saw in England. During the
discussion to which I have referred, Lord George Bentincfc,
who was well known for his fondness for horses, and the race
course, made a speech which placed him on the side of the pro-
tectionists against Sir Robert Peel, whom he had before ardent-
ly supported. Sir Robert in a reply full of sharp invective
said, "It is far from my intention to charge the honorable mem-
ber with inconsistency, when he is universally known as a man
of stable mind."

After the death of my grandfather in 1826 my grandmother
continued to occupy the family mansion until 1830, when she

136 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

removed to Boston, where she died, April 1, 1847. F°r a Y^*
or more after her departure, the house was occupied by her
son, Nathaniel Morton Davis, while his house on Court street,
now owned by the Old Colony Club, was undergoing alterations
and repairs. In 1832 it was sold to Wm. Morton Jackson,
who moved into it from his former residence in North street
on the corner of Rope Walk lane, where the house of Isaac M.
Jackson now stands. Mr. Jackson fitted the front west room
for a store, and removed his business in dry goods from the
building on the corner of Summer street and Spring Hill,
which was taken down about 1890. In 185 1 Mr. Jackson, who
had been collector of the port from 1845 to J849> s°ld the estate
to Mrs. Sarah Plympton, and removed to Boston, where he
engaged in the wholesale grocery business on State street,
nearly opposite Merchants' Row. During its ownership by
Mrs. Plympton, it was occupied as a boarding house at various
times by Ephraim Spooner, Mrs. Wm. H. Spear and Mrs. Eph-
raim T. Paty, and was sold in 1878 by her executor to George
F. Weston, Charles O. Churchill and Samuel Harlow, with
whose ownership and the erection of the Rink in 1884 my read-
ers are familiar.

As long ago as I can remember, the next estate on the west,
on which the store of W. H. H. Weston stands, was occupied
by a building in the lower story of which Zaben Olney and Jas.
E. Leonard kept a flour and grain store, established by them in
1827, and in the upper story of which the Custom House was
located. In 183 1 Harrison Gray Otis Ellis, succeeded Olney
and Leonard in the store, but in 1832 gave up business, and the
building was sold to the Old Colony Bank, then recently or-
ganized. The Custom House continued to occupy the second
story until 1845, when Gustavus Gilbert occupied it for a time
as a law office. In 1846 Steward and Alderman, who had
bought the building of the Bank in 1842, sold it to Wm. Rider
Drew, who moved the building back, and added a new front,
as the building stands at the present time.

In 1845 ^e Custom House was located in a room on the
north side of the house at the corner of North and Main
streets, where it remained through the administrations of Mr.
Jackson, Thomas Hedge and Edward P. Little, until 1857.

James Easdell Leonard, the partner of Zaben Olney, was a

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 137

Plymouth man, the son of Nathaniel Warren Leonard, and
married Abby, daughter of John Bishop, and step daughter of
Ezra Finney, and lived for a time in the southerly half of the
double house, recently owned and occupied by the late George
E. Morton. Zaben Olney came from Rhode Island, and what
his occupation was before he entered into partnership with Mr.
Leonard, is not within my remembrance. He married in
1816, Rebecca Morton, and in 1862, Olive P. Wolcott. For
some years after 1837, he kept the Old Colony House in Court
Square, and for several years after 1854, a hotel in the old
Barnabas Hedge house on Leyden street, now owned and oc-
cupied by Wm. Rider Drew.

Harrison Gray Otis Ellis, who succeeded Olney and Leon-
ard, came to Plymouth, from Wareham, but was in business
here not more than a year, during which time he married Mar-
garet D., daughter of Jeremiah Holbrook. He removed to
Sandwich, where I think he kept for a number of years a dry
goods and clothing store. Steward and Alderman, who owned
the building from 1842 to 1846, and Alderman and Gooding
kept during that time dry goods stores in it.

Most of my readers will remember that in 1883 the corner of
Market and Leyden streets was cut off by the county commis-
sioners. At that time the old building on the corner was
moved down Market street, and the present brick building put
up on the new line of the street. As long ago as I can remem-
ber, in 1829, the old house was kept as a hotel by Wm. Randall.
Built by William Shurtleff in 1689, it had twice before been
used as a hotel, once in 1713 by Job Cushman, and again in
1732 by Consider Howland. In 1831 Mr. Randall occupied a
part of the house as an auction room, and in 1832 he established
with Lucius Doolittle a line of stages to Boston, which preceded
the famous line established by George Drew. The stage office
was in the corner room, and the stable was on the corner of
School street and Town Square. In 1835 James C. Valentine
had a harness shop on the corner, and later was succeeded by
Martin Myers and Wm. Hall Jackson in the same business.
Chandler Holmes and Lysander Dunham occupied the store
until the building was moved. After William Randall, the
residential part was occupied, at various times by Dr. Andrew
Mackie, Sylvanus Bramhall, Wm. Rider Drew, James Thurber,

I38 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

David Drew, Isaac B. Rich and Mrs. M. J. Lincoln, the author
of the Boston Cook Book. Wm. Hall Jackson, above men-
tioned, died February 3, 1869.

The occupants of the buildings on Market street, and the
changes in the line of the street, which have been made within
my recollection, come next in order. There was no change in
the boundaries after 171 5 until December 30, 1873, when the
street was widened on the easterly side from the present bake
house south. It was again widened November 5, 1883, by cut-
ting off the Leyden street corner. Again on the first of Jan-
uary, 1890, it was widened on the westerly side of Spring Hill
by the removal of the building there situated. At the time
the Leyden street corner was cut off, the building next to the
corner was taken down, and the corner building moved into its
place. A new brick building was put on the corner with the
history of which my readers are familiar. The house now-
standing next to the brick one has already been discribed as
the house on the corner. As long ago as I remember the house
which stood next to the corner, and was taken down in 1883,
was built by Benjamin Bramhall, and was called the green
store. In 1827 it was occupied at times by William Z. Ripley,
who kept a dry goods store, Rufus Robbins, who kept what
was called the Old Colony bookstore, Benjamin Hathaway, who
kept a harness store, and Sylvanus Bramhall, silversmith. In
1833 it was occupied by James G. Gleason barber, in 185 1, by
James Kendrick, and later, by George A. Hathaway, book-
seller, and Benjamin Churchill.

The next building was occupied in my boyhood by Deacon
Nathan Reed, who had at an earlier date kept a store in the
next building on the south. He owned a barn in School
street, which was burned in January, 1835, an<i I remember that
the only house taking fire from flying embers was his own
dwelling on Market street. He died, January 12, 1842, and in
1856 his widow sold the house to Barnabas H. Holmes, who
converted its lower rooms into a store, and occupied it for a
tailor's shop. It was later occupied by Benjamin Cooper Fin-
ney, as a store, and in 1883 was removed to the rear of the
Brewster building on Leyden street, where it has since been
used as a dwelling house with its old front room restored.

The next building was long known as the Shurtleff tavern

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 139

and, before the revolution, was partially occupied by General
Peleg Wadsworth for a private school. General Wadsworth's
daughter Zilpah married Stephen Longfellow, the grandfather
of the poet. As long ago as I can remember its upper story
was occupied by Robert Dunham, who owned a large stable in
the rear, the entrance to which was through the yard on the
south of the building in question. Mr. Dunham was con-
nected with stage lines to Boston and Taunton in connection
with George Drew, and died in 1833. He had three daugh-
ters, one of whom, Mary Ann, married Thomas Long, second
cousin of Gov. John D. Long, and kept a milliner's store on
Summer street in the house which was afterwards occupied by
the late Benjamin Hathaway.

The lower part of the Dunham building was divided into two
stores. The northerly one was a candy store, kept by two la-
dies, who were known only as Nancy and Eliza; I wish to
embalm their memories in gratitude for the satisfaction my
youthful taste often received at their hands. They were,
Nancy, a maiden lady, daughter of James and Bethiah (Dun-
ham) Paulding, and Eliza (Rogers) Straffin, wife of George
Straffin. They were succeeded by Stephen Rogers, who car-
ried on the same business, and died, May 18, 1868. The
other store was occupied by Lazarus Symmes, who had suc-
ceeded Nathan Reed, and who died, Dec. 25, 1851. After the
death of Robert Dunham, the upper part was occupied by Dan-
iel Deacon, who married, Mary, daughter of Thomas Torrance,
and died March 13, 1842. The building in question was tak-
en down, and the present building, recently owned by the estate
of Zaben Olney, was erected on the northerly part of the lot,
and on the southerly part the present bake house was erected
by Samuel Talbot and George Churchill, bakers.

In my youth a building standing on the south side of the en-
trance to Dunham's stable, was owned by Antipas Brigham,
who occupied it as a dwelling house and store. Mr. Brigham
died, August 6, 1832, and was succeeded in the occupancy of
the store by William Barnes in 1832, and later by Stephen Lu-
cas, Ephraim Bartlett, and Wm. Henry Bartlett. In 1827
Harvey Shaw, accountant, occupied the upper part for a time,
and in 1845 Alvah C. Page occupied it for a writing school.
The building in question was partially burned about 1870, and

I40 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

taken down, and in 1876 a building which had been occupied
by Wm. Bishop and others, on the Odd Fellows' lot on Main
street, was moved to its site.

This last building, after its removal was occupied for a time
by Thomas N. Eldridge as a dry goods store.

The next building has had its front altered into a store, but
in other respects it remains as it was in my youth, when owned
and occupied as a dwelling house by John Macomber. In 1874
it came into the possession of Josiah A. Robbins, and the store
now standing on its south side was moved from the present
site of the store of Christopher T. Harris.

The next house built in 1832 by Capt. Isaac Bartlett, came
into the possession of John B. Atwood in 1855, who fitted up a
store on its northerly side, and occupied the remainder as a
dwelling. Capt. Isaac Bartlett was a shipmaster for mapy
years, and made many voyages in the Havana trade between
that port and Plymouth, in the brig Hannah, owned by Barna-
bas Hedge. I have distinct and agreeable memories of his
arrivals with loads of molasses, some of which I licked from
sticks introduced into hospitable bung holes, without money and
without price. Captain Bartlett died, May 3, 1845. By Ws
second wife, Rebecca, daughter of Caleb Bartlett, he had a son,
Robert, born in 1817, and a daughter, Rebecca, born in 1819,
both remarkable for minds capable of unlimited development
and cultivation. Robert Bartlett, of whom I wish particularly
to speak, was fitted for college in Plymouth by George Wash-
ington Hosmer and Addison Brown, both graduates of Har-
vard in the class of 1826 ; and graduated in 1836. He was tu-
tor in Latin at Harvard from 1839 to 1843, when his **&!
death destroyed the promise of a brilliant career. Aside from
being a fellow townsman, I had an opportunity afforded by be-
ing a fellow boarder with him two years in Cambridge, of es-
timating his character and learning. I do not feel that I am
violating any rules of propriety in speaking of a passage in his
career, which gave me as a young man my first insight into the
romances of life. He became engaged to my cousin, Elizabeth
Crowell White, a daughter of Capt. Gideon Consider White, a
lady of about his own age, and as remarkable as he in literary
culture. After the death of her father and mother she was a
member of my mother's family until her death. In 1842, on

OP AN OCTOGENARIAN. I4I

a visit to relatives in Nova Scotia, she broke off her engage-
ment with Mr. Bartlett, and soon after contracted a new en-
gagement with an English gentleman. The blow to Mr. Bart-
lett was a severe one, and I remember well the visit which he
made to our house on the afternoon of the day he received his
letter of dismissal. After her return from Nova Scotia I was
not long in discovering that her heart was still in the posses-
sion of her former lover, though she endeavored to conceal the
fact. At this time an inherited tendency to a disease of the
lungs began to show itself, both in her and in Mr. Bartlett, and
in both cases, consumption rapidly performed its fatal work.
She was soon confined permanently to the house, and he was
obliged to abandon his college work, and return home to-be-
come like her a prisoner in his chamber and bed. He was
brought from Boston in the steamboat, then running, and she,
knowing that he was coming, sat by the chamber window on
the north side of our house on Cole's Hill, evidently anxious to
catch a glimpse of one whom she had mistakenly cast off, but
whom she still loved with all her heart. I remember well the
tears she shed as he was carried up the street, and she saw him
for the last time. Both failed rapidly. He died at his home,
September 15, 1843, and she on the 7th of the next month, and
both are buried in Vine Hills cemetery, united at least in spirit,
where "they neither marry nor are given in marriage."

It is not worth while to consider the occupancy of the re-
maining estates between the Isaac Bartlett house and the brook.
It will be sufficient to say that the first building next to the
Bartlett House was at one time occupied by Oliver Keyes, and
again by Martin Myers, who kept a harness store on the
corner of Leyden street. Two stores have been erected in
front of the building which are occupied by C. T. Harris &
Son, and by the Co-operative store. In 1828 a man named
Joseph D. Jones, kept a tinman's shop on Market street, but its
precise location I cannot define. He advertised bulbous roots
for sale, and we boys, always ready to adopt nicknames, called
him bulbous Jones. He deserved a better name, for he was
one of the best of men, conscientious in all his dealings, and a
valuable citizen. At a later date he moved to a one story
building on Main street, where Leyden Hall building now
stands, after Dr. Isaac LeBaron, apothecary, had moved from

142 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

it to the comer of North street. Rev. Adiel Harvey, pastor
of the Baptist Society from 1845 *° I8SS, and superintendent
of public schools from 1853 to 1859, married his daughter.
About forty years after he left Plymouth I met him one day
in Boston, and instantly recognizing him, called him by name,
and had a pleasant conversation with him. Of course he
failed to recognize me, but he expressed great pleasure at meet-
ing some one from Plymouth, who could tell him about the do-
ings in the old town. Twelve or fifteen years ago I was ad-
vertised to deliver an address before the Young Men's Christian
Union, and the old man considerably over ninety years of age,
seeing the advertisement, came escorted by his daughter to
hear me. He died not many years ago at the Old Men's
Home, on Springfield street, where he had been for some time
an inmate, nearly if not quite, a centenarian.

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. I43

CHAPTER XVI.

On the opposite side of Spring Hill there was until 1890 a
building with a front on Summer street, but there was a tene-
ment on its easterly end which must be considered in connec-
tion with Market street. This tenement in my youth was oc-
cupied by Clement Bates, a native of Hanover, who came to
Plymouth and married Irene Sanger, daughter of Thomas
Burgess, the keeper of the Plymouth lighthouse, who, because
he always wore a red thrum cap, was called Red Cap Burgess.
He married in 1824 Betsey Burgess, a sister of his first wife.
He was a caulker, and graver by trade, and in 1831 was chosen
sexton by the town, whose duty it was to conduct funerals, take
care of the town house, and ring the town bell at such hours,
morning, noon and night, as were specified by the town. Af-
ter his relinquishment of the management of funerals, which
had been taken up by private undertakers, he told me that he
had buried thirty-two hundred and fifty persons. He per-
formed the other duties of his office until his death, July 13,
1885. It is an interesting fact that after so long a period of
business dealings with the material bodies of the dead he be-
came a confirmed believer in the doctrines of Spiritualism.

In my early youth a wooden building standing on the north
corner of Market and Summer streets, was occupied as a store
by Bridgham Russell, until he was appointed postmaster in
1832. Mr. Russell was the son of Jonathan and Rebecca
(Turner) Russell of Barnstable, and was born in 1793. He.
married in 1822 Betsey, daughter of Jeremiah Farris of Barn-
stable, and died March 29, 1840. He was the second Captain
of the Standish Guards, succeeding Captain Coomer Weston.
The store which Mr. Russell had occupied, was taken down in
1832, and replaced by the present brick building, which was
occupied by Alexander G. Nye, and for many years by Samuel
and Thomas Branch Sherman. Samuel Sherman was Town
Treasurer from 1835 to I8s6, serving one year after I entered,
for the first time, the office of selectman, and died October 20,
1857.

144 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

The next building was occupied as long ago as I can remem-
ber by Osmore Jenkins, who kept a jeweller's store as early as
1830, and after leaving Plymouth became distinguished in his
profession. He was born in Mt. Vernon, N. H., September 4,
1815, and died in Melrose, Mass., December 19, 1904. Mr.
Jenkins was succeeded by Wm. Morey, who occupied the store
many years in making and selling boots and shoes. In those
days, especially in winter, it was the universal custom to wear
boots, the common close legged boots, in contra distinction to
the top boots worn with small clothes. In 183 1, when I was
nine years old, Mr. Morey made my first pair, and if school
hours had not interfered I think I should have watched every
stitch and peg in their construction. These boots, now little
worn, were first introduced into the peninsular army by the
Duke of Wellngton, and are to this day in England called Wel-
lingtons. Why Congress boots, which have largely taken their
place, should be so called, is somewhat strange, as similar laced
boots have been for many generations worn in Ireland under
the name of high-lows and brogans.

Wm. Morey had seven sons, William, born in 1813, John Ed-
wards, 181 5, Thos., 1817, Cornelius, 1820, Charles, 1825, Ed-
win, 1827, and Henry, 1833. Of these Edwin lives in Boston,
a successful and well known merchant; Thomas was in 1899
the head of a thriving printing house in Greenfield, and of John
Edwards I know nothing, while William, Charles and Henry
have been dead some years, and Cornelius died in infancy.

The building extending from the Morey building to High
street, was in my youth divided into two tenements. The
southerly part was owned and occupied by Samuel Talbot, who
bought it in 1826. Mr. Talbot, son of George Talbot of Mil-
ton, was born in that town in 1791, and came to Plymouth
about 1820. In 1825 he formed a partnership with John Cal-
derwood Holmes in the bakery business in the building in Sum-
mer street now occupied by the Misses Rich. Mr. Holmes
died May 17, 1826, and Mr. Talbot became associated with
George Churchill in the business. I have often seen the room,
now a parlor, full of sea biscuit, waiting to be packed in casks
and placed on board the whalemen. I remember, too, the two
wheeled green baker's cart with America Rogers driving, and
the round, warm biscuit which he left at our house nearly every

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 145

morning, the size and color of which varied with the price and
quality of flour. Mr. Churchill was a man of humor, and in
speaking one day of the readiness of Plymouth people to catch
at new ideas he said, "Yes, Plymouth people will swallow any-
thing. I know that by experience, for I have stuffed them
with poor bread a good many years." Nevertheless, those
warm biscuits were good, but America Rogers' buns and elec-
tion cakes were better. Mr. Talbot d:ed September 28, 1883.
The northerly part of the building was owned and occupied in
my boyhood by John Kempton, a caulker and graver by trade,
as a dwelling house and store.

The building on the northerly corner of High street, recently
owned by Chas. T. Holmes, was in 1832 the property and home
of Samuel Robbins, and later of his son-in-law Robert Cowen.
Until June 25, 1870, its southerly end extended about eight feet
south of the general line of High street, but on that date the
projection was taken by the town and the street line straight-
ened. This projection was occupied in 1831, and later by Albert
Leach as a shoemaker's shop,and still later byEleazer H.Barnes
as a candy shop. Outside of the northerly end of the building,
was a covered stairway and passage leading to a store in the
rear of the main building in which Mr. Robbins kept a store
until his death, which occurred July 27, 1838, at the age of
eighty-six. It must have been about 1830 that he dislocated
his thigh. At that time the means of reducing dislocations
were crude, and I remember hearing in the street the terrible
groans of the old gentleman while under the hands of the Bos-
ton surgeon, who had been sent for to manage the case.

The next building, which belongs to the estate of the late
Charles T. Holmes, was occupied as long ago as I can remem-
ber on the front by Wm. Brown for the post office on the street
floor, while he held the office of postmaster from 1822 to 1832,
after which it was occupied by Edward Hathaway for a harness
store, and finally by Amasi and Charles T. Holmes. The cel-
lar under the post office was occupied at various times by Henry
Flanders, who died May 8, 1835, and later, by James Barnes
and others as an oyster shop. In 1829 H. H. Rolfe taught a
private school in the room over the post office, and in 1832, Ce-
phas Geovani Thompson, a portrait painter, and native of Mid-
dleboro, occupied for a time the same room where he painted

I46 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

portraits of Rev. Dr. Kendall, Capt. Nathaniel Russell and my
mother. His son of the same name, was a highly esteemed
portrait painter in Boston many years. The Old Colony Hall,
a part of the estate in the rear of the main building, was
through my youth occupied for various purposes. The Uni-
versalist Society after its formation, held services there from
1822 to 1826, when their church was built on Carver street.
In 1833 Hiram Fuller taught a private school in the Hall, and
many times in my boyhood I attended lectures and exhibitions
there, among which were those of Harrington, the ventrilo-
quist At a later period the hall and the upper part of the
main building were occupied by Stephen P. and Joseph P.
Brown for a furniture sho£ and show room. William Brown,
above mentioned, died May 9, 1845.

In speaking of Main street in an early chapter I referred to
the physical changes which it had undergone within my mem-
ory. I propose now to say something about the occupants of
its houses. As far back as I can remember the building on
the corner of Main and Leyden streets contained a store in the
lower story on Main street, a large room or hall on the corner
I over the store, and a tenement with an entrance on Leyden

J street. The store was occupied as early as 1825 as a hardware

I store by James and Ephraim Spooner, who dissolved partner-

ship in 1832, Ephraim continuing in the business. In 1839
I John Washburn and William Rider Drew were established in

I the store in the same business. In 1846 Messrs. Washburn

I and Drew separated, the former taking a store on the west side

of the street, and the latter establishing himself as has been
stated in the building on Leyden street, which had been occu-
pied by Steward and Alderman, and Alderman and Gooding.
The store after Washburn & Drew left it was divided into two
and the corner one was occupied at various times by Benjamin
Swift in the watch and clock business, and Edward W. At-
! wood. The other was occupied by Edward Hathaway and

! Edward Bartlett, Reuben Peterson and Rich and Weston's ex-

| press. At a later time both stores were occupied by Weston's

\ express succeeded by their present occupant, the New York

and Boston Despatch Express.

It is worthy of notice as showing one of the steps in the pro-
gress of the temperance movement that the Plymouth Temper-

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. I47

ance Society in 1825 placed in the hands of Ephraim Spooner
a quantity of intoxicating liquors to be by him given without
charge to persons presenting the written prescription of a phy-
sician. Mr. Spooner was appointed postmaster in 1840, and
again in 1842, after an interval of one year, during which Jos-
eph Lucas held the office. He died April 10, 1887.

The large room over the store was occupied as a school
room in 1831 and 1832 by George Partridge Bradford, who
taught a mixed school of boys and girls, of whom I was one,
and by Wm. Whiting, also, as a school room in 1833. It was
later used by private teachers, and often as political campaign
headquarters. The tenement was in those days occupied by
Oliver Wood, the father of the late Oliver T. and Isaac L.
Wood.

Mr. Bradford was the son of Gamaliel Bradford of Boston,
and graduated at Harvard in 1825. He prepared for the min-
istry, but never sought a settlement, devoting himself to the
profession of a teacher. Concord was frequently his home,
and he possessed that mental temperament which made him a
congenial companion of Emerson and Alcott. He died in
Cambridge in 1890 at the age of 80.

Mr. Whiting graduated at Harvard in 1833, and while pre-
paring himself for the bar taught a school in Plymouth, and,
like the teachers who had preceeded him, George Washington
Hosmer, William Parsons Lunt, William H. Lord, Isaac
N. Stoddard, Nathaniel Bradstreet, Benjamin Shurtleff, Hor-
ace H. Rolfe and Josiah Moore, married a Plymouth wife.
Charles Field another teacher, died while his marriage engage-
ment to a Plymouth lady was pending. Mr. Whiting married
Lydia Cushing, daughter of Thomas Russell, and became a
distinguished leader at the Boston bar. Miss Rose S. Whit-
ing of Plymouth is his daughter. During the Civil war he
was for a time the solicitor of the War Department, and pub-
lished a very able paper on "War Powers under the Constitu-
tion/' which was taken as a guide in many doubtful questions
arising during the war. He died at his home in Roxbury,
June 29, 1873.

The next one story building was occupied as far back as my
memory goes by Thomas May as a shoe store. He occupied
it until 1845, when Henry Howard Robbins took the store and

I48 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

occupied it as a hat store, and was succeeded by Harrison
Finney, who occupied it many years for the sale of shoe kit and
findings, until his death, July 27, 1878. Mr. Robbins died De-
cember 19, 1872.

The next store now occupied by Benjamin L. Bramhall, was
before 1830 occupied by Ezra Collier, who kept a bookstore and
circulating library. In 1829 he formed a partnership with
William Sampson Bartlett, under the firm name of Collier and
Bartlett, which was dissolved the next year. Mr. Collier came
to Plymouth about 1820, and married in 1823 Mary, daughter
of Thomas and Mehitable (Shaw) Atwood, and I think re-
moved from town after the dissolution of his partnership.

Mr. Bartlett continued the business in the same store until
1840, when he moved into the store built by him now occupied
by Finney's pharmacy in the building owned by Dr. Benjamin
Hubbard. Anthony Morse succeded Mr. Bartlett, and occupied
it for a grocery store. It was later occupied by Benjamin
Bramhall for a short time, and by William L. Battles for a
year, when it was again occupied by Mr. Bramhall, who was
succeeded by his son, Benjamin L., its present occupant. Ben-
jamin Bramhall died August 15, 1882.

The next store was occupied by Thomas and George Adams
as a hat store from 1828 until the dissolution of their partner-
ship in 1830. Thomas Adams continued the business until
1832, when he gave up business, and not long after was em-
ployed as a salesman in the hat store of Rhodes on the corner
of Washington and Court streets in Boston. He was a son
of Thomas and Mercy (Savery) Adams, and married Eunice
H. Bugbee of Pomfret, Vermont. He was not open to the
charge of promoting race suicide as the following record of his
children shows, to wit : Mary E., born in 1832 ; Thomas H.,
1834; Frederick E. and Frank W., twins, 1836; Luther B. and
Ellen, twins, 1837 J Miranda B., 1839 ; Harriet E., 1841 ; James
O. and another twin, 1841 ; David B., 1845 J Walter S. and an-
other twin, 1848, Adelaide V., 1849.

George Adams, brother of Thomas, removed to Boston, and
became the well known and successful founder of the Boston
directory. He returned to Plymouth in 1846, and occupied
the old store. He married in 1829 Hannah Sturtevant, daugh-
ter of Ephraim Harlow, and had George W., 1830, who married

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 149

Mary Holland of Boston ; Hannah, 1832, who married Dr. Ed-
ward A. Spooner of Philadelphia; Sarah S., 1840, and Theo-
dore Parker, 1845, who married Ellen B., daughter of Joseph
Cushman. He died October 4, 1865, at the age of fifty-eight.
In 1835 Henry Howard Robbins moved his hatter's business
to this store, and it was later occupied by John Perkins & Reu-
ben Peterson, hatters, Weston & Atwood, clothiers, and Wm.
F. Peterson and others.

My first recollection of the Old Colony Memorial was
when it was located in one or both rooms over the two stores
just mentioned. James Thurber was then the publisher, and
Benjamin Drew was one of the type setters. The paper was
ready for the press by seven o'clock every Friday evening, and
I remember well how much I enjoyed as a boy the permission
to go to the office after supper and help fold the papers. The
machine used in printing was the old Washington hand press
which, tended by two men, could print one side at the rate of
two or three hundred in an hour. Today a Hoe press is
furnished with a roll of paper more than four miles long, and
will print fifteen thousand complete newspapers in an hour.

The next store was in 1834, occupied by James G. Gleason
as a barber's shop, to which was attached a small room for the
sale of soda and ice cream. Up to 1828 the barber shop of
Jonathan Tufts, which stood on Church street, where the office
of Jason W. Mixter, now stands, was the gathering place where
the gossips of the town exchanged their news of the latest
scandal. His shop had been for many years the place of de-
posit for curiosities which shipmasters collected in various parts
of the world. Both the gossip and the curiosities were inheri-
ted by the Gleason shop, and finally descended to the shop of
Isaac B. Rich and John T. Hall, Mr. Gleason's successors.

Sometimes practical jokes were played in the shop more en-
tertaining to the lookers on than to the victims. One of the
habitues was William Bradford, a manufacturer of cotton bats,
a man of humor, always ready to play a part in any prank.
One day while Mr. Bradford was in the shop, Mr. Gleason
went out on an errand and a countryman came in to be shaved.
Bradford with a wink at the crowd said, "All right sir, your
turn next, sit right down." He gave the man a bountiful lath-
er, and pulling off the towel said to him, "This is all we do

150 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

in this department, you will have to go into the next shop to
get your shave. When you go in don't mind the old fellow in
the front room, for he is a queer chap, a little off in his head,
but go right through into the back room where they do the
shaving." Daniel Gale, the tailor, occupied the next shop, us-
ing the front room for cutting out work, and the back room for
the sewing women. Mr. Gale was astonished, and so were the
women, but when the angry countryman returned, Bradford
had left, and Gleason had to bear the brunt of his mischief. Mr.
Hall occupied the store until he purchased the Dr. Warren
house on the west side of Main street, which he occupied
until his death, September 21, 1885. Among those who have
since occupied the store were, Mrs. Mary F. Campbell and
Frederick L. Holmes.

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 151

CHAPTER XVII.

The last chapter closed with a mention of the various occu-
pants of the building on the east side of Main street, formerly
occupied by John T. Hall, and now occupied by a provision
store.

The next store was a one story building, which was occupied
during my early youth by Deacon Solomon Churchill for a
crockery store, and for some reason, good man as he was, the
boys selected him as a victim of many of their mischievous
acts. They would, after tying his door handle, throw gravel
against his windows, throw a cat dead or alive into his store,
or capturing one of their comrade's caps, toss it inside his
door, where a good spanking was the only condition of its re-
lease. Deacon Churchill, son of Amaziah and Elizabeth (Syl-
vester) Churchill was born in Plymouth in 1762, where he
married Betsey Bartlett, and died in Perry, Ohio, April 10,
1835. Daniel Gale, the tailor, already referred to, succeeded
Deacon Churchill, and occupied it many years. Further men-
tion will be made of him as an occupant of a house on the west
side of the street.

The next store standing by itself was also a one story build-
ing, in my youth occupied as an apothecary shop by Dr. Isaac
LeBaron until 1835, when he moved to the corner of Main
and North streets. Dr. LeBaron was succeeded by Joseph D.
Jones, tinman, who has been already referred to in connection
with Market street. The above two one story buildings occu-
pied the sites of the present Leyden Hall building, and the
Hubbard building.

After the erection of Leyden Hall building its early occu-
pants were, Joseph Cushman, Alderman & Gooding, on the
North side, and Jameson & Company and Benjamin O.
Strong on the South side. Mr. Cushman, son of Joseph and
Sally (Thompson) Cushman of Middleboro, came a young
roan to Plymouth and opened a dry goods store cm the corner
of Main street and Town Square, whence he removed to the
Leyden hall building, and continued in business there some

152 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

years. In December, 1849, he sailed from New York for Cali-
fornia, and became a permanent resident on the Pacific coast.
He finally settled in Olympia in Washington territory, where
he engaged in the lumber and general mercantile business, and
held the position of receiver of public moneys. He married
in 1835 Sarah Thomas, daughter of Barnabas and Triphena
(Covington) Hedge of Plymouth, and died in Olympia, Feb-
ruary 29, 1872. Two of his daughters, Mary A., widow of
Alfred E. Walker of New Haven, and Ellen Blanche, who
married Theodore Parker Adams, live in Plymouth.

The firm of Alderman & Gooding consisted of Orin F.
Alderman and George Gooding. They had previously occu-
pied a store where John E. Jordan's hardware store now
is. Mr. Alderman came to Plymouth from some town un-
known to me, and married Eliza Ann, daughter of John and
Deborah (Barnes) Gooding of Plymouth, and sister of his
partner. After closing his business in Plymouth, he removed
to Framingham, where he and his wife are still living.

George Gooding, son of John and Deborah Gooding, above
mentioned, was born in Plymouth in 1822. He was my play-
mate and schoolmate, and I may say my comrade in arms, as
we were members of a boys' military company, of which he
was captain, and I was lieutenant. In our Saturday afternoon
parades with drum and fife, we flattered ourselves that we ex-
cited the admiration of the misses in their teens, but we failed
to be appreciated by our fellow citizens, for to their shame, be
it said, they did not even offer us a thirty thousand dollar ar-
mory for our use. Mr. Gooding married Eliza Merrill of
Concord, N. H., and died in Plymouth, March 5, 1850.

Mr. Jameson, the head of the firm of Jameson & Co., came
to Plymouth from one of the Bridgewaters and died in 1854.

Benjamin Owen Strong, son of Ely and Betsey (Baldwin)
Strong was born in Granville, Mass., February 25, 1832, and
came to Plymouth in the autumn of 1851, when nineteen years
of age. He first held the position of clerk in the Mansion
House at the corner of Court and North streets, then conduct-
ed by N. M. Perry, but in May, 1852, he became a clerk in the
dry goods store of Jameson & Company. On the death of
Mr. Jameson in 1854, Mr. Strong assumed control of the
store. He later bought out the establishment, and from that

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 153

time to this has carried on the dry goods business with honor
and success. He married Betsey J. Chute of Newburyport,
and again, February 17, 1891, Elizabeth H. Snow of Orleans.
His son, Charles Alexander, became his partner in 1884. As
the Nestor of the merchants of Plymouth, I make an exception
of him among the living, and award to him a special notice.

The next building was erected by Wm. Sampson Bartlett
in 1840, and the store on the lower floor was occupied by fiim
as a book store until 1846, when he removed to Boston. Dr.
Benjamin Hubbard has since that time occupied the tenement
in the building as his home, and has also until a very recent
date occupied the store as an apothecary shop.

The next building was occupied from 1826 to 1832 by Isaac
Sampson as a dry goods store, and the late James Cox was
his assistant. Mr. Sampson was the son of Benjamin and
Priscilla (Churchill) Sampson of Plymouth, and married in
1822, Elizabeth, daughter of William Sherman. The late
George Sampson of the firm of Sampson and Murdock, pub-
lishers of the Boston Directory, was his son. He died May 7,
1832, forty-two years of age. After the death of Mr. Samp-
son the store was occupied by various tenants, among whom
were Reuben Peterson, who kept a hat store, Calvin Ripley,
James Barnes, Stephen Lucas and Charles H. Churchill, who
preceded D. Flanzbaum, a tailor, the present occupant.

A part of the store was set off as a separate room, and has
been occupied at various times by Winslow S. Holmes and
others. Calvin Ripley died May 1, 1874.

The next building was occupied for some years previous to
1852 by Thomas Davis and Wm. S. Russell, under the firm
name of Davis & Russell, who kept a general store
for the sale of dry goods and crockery. The import-
ation of the Pilgrim plates was due to their enterprise. The
tradition that they were manufactured expressly for use at the
dinner in 1820 on the anniversary of the "Landing" is not cor-
rect. Messrs. Davis & Russell, impressed with the idea that
an invoice of Pilgrim china would prove a profitable venture,
ordered of Enoch Wood & Sons of Burslem, England, a con-
siderable quantity of large sized plates and two sizes of
pitchers. Happening to arrive not long before the celebration,
they were hired for the dinner, and afterwards sold as memen-

154 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

toes of the occasion. They took so well with the public, and
brought such high prices, that the firm ordered an additional
invoice, which included in all six sizes of plates and the same
two sizes of pitchers, and the pieces have been scattered far
and wide, the market value in bric-a-brac stores being twelve
dollars for the large plates, and fifteen and ten dollars for the
two sizes of pitchers, while the small sized plates are unob-
tainable. There is a group of these various sizes owned by a
collector in New York, a photograph of which may be seen
in Pilgrim Hall. At this time it is impossible to distinguish
the pieces originally imported from- those which came after-
ward.

Davis & Russell were succeeded by John S. Hayward in
1827, who continued in the dry goods business until 1831.
The store was afterwards occupied by the Plymouth Institu-
tion for savings, the Old Colony Insurance Co., and a reading
room, until 1842, and was bought in 1847 by Jason Hart, who
moved his dry goods business from Summer street, and occu-
pied the store until 1856, when Leander Lovell and John H.
Harlow, under the firm name of Lovell & Harlow, became its
occupants. John H. Harlow and Albert Barnes succeeded
Lovell & Harlow, they in turn being succeeded by Wm. At-
wood, clothier, the predecessor of H. H. Cole, the present oc-
cupant. Jason Hart died February 20, 1874, at the age of
seventy-one. The room over the store was occupied at various
times by Joseph W. Hodgkins, tailor, Wm. Whiting and Wm.
G. Russell, teachers of private schools, Wm. Davis, attorney-
at-law, and Stephen Lucas and others, photographers. Wil-
liam Davis died, February 19, 1853, and Mr. Hodgkins died,
May 11, 1872.

William G. Russell was the son of Thomas and Mary Ann
(Goodwin) Russell, and graduated at Harvard in 1840. He
studied law with Wm. Whiting, his brother-in-law, and became
an eminent member of the Boston bar. He married in 1847,
May Ellen, daughter of Thomas and Lydia (Coffin) Hedge,
and died in Boston, February 6, 1896.

The next building was divided into two stores as long ago
as I can remember it, and the southerly one was occupied by
John Bartlett 3d, as a dry and West India goods store from
1827 to 1846, and the late Joseph Holmes, brother of Mrs.

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 155

William Bartlett, was his assistant. Mr. Bartlett was the son
of John and Polly (Morton) Bartlett, and married, 1829,
Eliza, daughter of Ezra Finney, and lived in the northerly part
of the house on Court street, next south of the present house
of Capt. Edward B. Atwood. He afterwards removed to
Boston, and engaged in the grocery business on the corner of
Federal and Purchase streets, and died in 1862. He was the
fourth Captain of the Standish Guards, and our townsman, J.
E. Bartlett, who lives on Clyfton street, is his son. The next
occupant of the store was Bradford & Gardner's express,
which suggests a word concerning the Plymouth and Boston
expresses. Samuel Gardner, a former driver on the Boston
line of stages, was the father of the Plymouth express busi-
ness. In January, 1846, two months after the opening of the
Old Colony Railroad, he started Gardner's express with a
booking office in the Pilgrim House on the corner of Middle
street. In March, 1846, Edward Winslow Bradford, a former
master of the packet Hector, started Bradford's express with
an office at No. 4 Main street. After the burning of the Pil-
grim House in June, 1846, Bradford and Gardner formed a
partnership, and established Bradford & Gardner's express,
and occupied the John Bartlett store. After a few years Har-
vey W. Weston bought Gardner out, and for a short time the
firm name was Bradford & Weston. In the meantime Isaac
B. Rich started an express with an office in Town Square.
Mr. Rich next bought Bradford out, and the firm name be-
came Rich & Weston, being succeeded by Weston alone, who
finally sold out to the present company, the New York and
Boston Despatch Express. Mr. Rich had immediately before
the establishment of his express kept a flour and grain store
on Water street. He died March 18, 1874.

Another express was started before the war by Allen
Holmes, with an office first in Market street, and later in the
old brick building on the corner of Court street. Mr. Holmes
sold to Wait, who sold to Snow, who sold to Hubbard, who
finally sold to Fowler, who had an office on Middle street. G.
A. Holbrook ran an express a short time at an unknown date.
Edward Winslow Bradford, the old partner of Gardner,
again started an express about 1870, which continued until
Ms death, December 27, 1874. Still another express was start-

156 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

ed by Guilford Cunningham, and a man named Cook, which
passed into the hands of Frederick W. Atwood.

Nathaniel Bradford, son of Edward Winslow Bradford,
formed a partnership in the express business with Freeman
E. Wells, who sold out to Simmons & Torrence, the prede-
cessors of the present Torrence express. Benjamin H. Cran-
don ran an express for a short time with an office on Middle
street in the easterly end of the building on the corner.

I know of no occupant of the John Bartlett store after Brad-
ford & Gardner, until William H. Smoot occupied it as a res-
taurant. Mr. Smoot stuttered badly, as did our townsman,
Anthony Morse, but neither knew the other's defect in speech.
Not long after he began business Mr. Morse came one day
into the shop and said, "Mr. Sm-o-o-t have you any ice
cr-r-eam?" "Y-y-y-es — have s-s-ome?" "D-d-d-amn your
ice c-r-r-eam," said Morse, very indignant at such an insult,
and went out shutting the door with a slam. The more recent
occupants, Jas. E. Dodge, who died February 20, 1888, Mr.
Richards, Mr. McCoy, Martin Curly, and Manley E. Dodge,
are well known to my readers.

The small store on the corner was occupied as a boot and
shoe store by Bartlett Ellis from 1824 to 183 1. I remember as
a boy seeing in his store a box of India rubber shoes packed
in sawdust, the first ever seen in Plymouth, having been im-
ported in Boston in small quantities in the rough state from
Para. This was before the process was discovered of making
the rubber pliable, and the shoes were as stiff as iron, requir-
ing to be warmed before a fire before they could be put on.
Mr. Ellis was succeeded by Ephraim Bartlett, and Henry
Mills, both in the same business, and later by E. D. Seymour,
tailor. The more recent well known occupants have been
Caleb Holmes, who died June 21, 1878, Charles H. Snell, Har-
rison Holmes, and the recent occupant, Henry C. Thomas,
in the market business. The room over the store was occupied
by the Old Colony Democrat in 1833, conducted by Benjamin
H. Crandon and Thomas Allen, and in 1834 by We The Peo-
ple, conducted by C. A. Hack and Horace Seaver.

On the corner of Main and Middle streets there stood as long
ago as I can remember the Plymouth Hotel, built by George
Drew about 1825, and kept certainly in 1827, and perhaps ear-

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 157

lier by James G. Gleason. I remember the hotel in 1828, when
my aunt, Mrs. Gideon C. White was boarding there with her
four children, while her husband was at sea in command, I
think, of the ship Harvest, belonging to Barnabas Hedge. In
the summer of the above year a small circus came to Plymouth
and performed in a tent pitched in the stable yard on Middle
street. Mrs. White's children were going to the circus, at-
tended by William Paty, a brother of the landlord's wife, and I
a boy of six years, was permitted by my mother to go with
them. While the horses made no impression on my memory,
I have a lively recollection of the monkey riding the pony's
back. Mr. Gleason, who was the third captain of the Standish
Guards, kept the Plymouth Hotel until 1830, when he was suc-
ceeded by Ellis Wright, who kept it until 1834.

Capt. Gleason was a portly, jovial landlord, who, I think,
came to Plymouth from Middleboro and married in 1816 Lucy
T., daughter of Joshua Bartlett, and second in 1820, Asenath,
daughter of John Paty. He was at different times landlord of
the Plymouth Hotel, hairdresser on Market street, barber on
Main street, landlprd of the Mansion House on the corner of
Court and North streets, and a purveyor of oysters and clam
chowder in various places. He was a man of humor, always
ready with an answer turning the laugh away from himself.
In those days the price of a common drink at the bar was four
pence half penny, or six and a quarter cents, but a drink of
brandy was nine pence, or twelve and a half cents. One day
a stranger called at the bar for a glass of brandy and Gleason
in the American fashion gave him the bottle to help himself.
To the astonishment of Gleason he filled his tumbler nearly full,
and with a little water, drank it with gusto, and placed on the
counter a nine penny piece. Gleason gave him back four
pence, half penny, and the stranger said: "I thought that
brandy was nine pence. "It is," said Gleason, "but we sell half
price by wholesale." The stranger took the hint, and insisted
on paying a quarter for the extended drink. At another time,
while keeping the Mansion House, a passenger by the stage ar-
rived for supper and left after breakfast the next morning. On
calling for his bill he found the charge to be five dollars.
"Good gracious" said the traveller, "I never paid such a bill as
that before." "No," said Gleason, "and I don't suppose you

I5& PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

ever had the honor of stopping at the Mansion House before."
Mr. Gleason died Oct. 6, 1853.

A few days after the Old Colony Railroad was opened
Gleason went down to the railroad station to gratify his curios-
ity, and seeing a locomotive on a track he climbed on, and while
fumbling about the rods and bars he turned on the steam and
away the engine went. Gleason hopped off, but fortunately an
engineer on another locomotive attached to a train about to
start for Boston, unshackled his machine and caught up with
the runaway, and brought it back. "Hem ! didn't she whiz,"
said Gleason in telling the story.

Ellis Wright, who succeeded Capt. Gleason, was a Plympton
man, son of Isaac and Selah (Ellis) Wright, and after leaving
Plymouth removed to Boston. The hotel had a good hall in
the second story, which was much used for dancing schools
and cotillion parties and exhibitions of various kinds. I at-
tended my first dancng school in that hall, and have danced
there at many cotillion parties since.

In 1834 Danville Bryant became the landlord, and from that
time until it was burned, the hotel was called the Pilgrim
House. Whence Mr. Bryant came, or where he went, I have
no means of knowing, but he continued in the hotel until 1840.
His daughter, Abigail, married Horace B. Taylor. It was
during his administration, and that of Mr. Wright, that the fa-
mous line of stages to and from Boston was established, and
continued until the opening of the Old Colony Railroad in 1845.
As I remember it the line consisted of an accommodation and a
mail stage. The accommodation left Plymouth at six or seven
o'clock each day, and returning left Boston at two, going
through West Duxbury, Pembroke, Hanover, West Scituate,
Weymouth Landing, Quincy and Dorchester. The mail
stage left Boston at five o'clock in the morning, arriving at
Plymouth at ten-thirty, when a return stage took passengers
from the Cape, arriving by the stage driven by Wm. Boyden,
and the Boyden stage took the passengers bound to the Cape.
The route of the mail stage would be one day the same as that
of the accommodation, and the next it would turn off at West
Scituate and go through Hingham to Quincy, and so into
Boston. The mail stage carried two pouches, one contain-
ing the through mail from the Cape, and the other containing

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 159

the way mail, which would be thrown off at the various post
offices to deliver and receive the mail to and from that office.
I remember the various lines of stages running every day in-
to and out of Boston, and I can say that no better horses or bet-
ter drivers could be seen than those on the Plymouth line.
There were in Boston various stage houses, Wilde's on Elm
street, Doolittle's City tavern on Brattle street, the Washing-
ton House on Washington street, and others. The Plymouth
stage office was in the City Tavern on Brattle street, and there
orders were left for calls by the stage for passengers. The
business on the line was good, and extra stages were frequently
required to meet the demand. It was a busy scene in front of
the Pilgrim House about half past ten on the arrival and de-
parture of the Boston and Cape stages, and Geo. Drew, the
manager of the line, might be seen here and there with a red
bandana handkerchief hanging from his teeth, giving direc-
tions and orders.

The drivers were as good as the horses. There were Capt.
Woodward, Granville Gardner, Samuel Gardner, Benjamin
Bates, John Bates, Asa Pierce, Phineas Pierce, Mr. Burgess,
Mr. Orcutt, and I think at one time, Jacob Sprague. John
Bates was perhaps the king of the line, wearing in suitable
weather, a white beaver hat, a brown suit of clothes, well pol-
ished boots, and neat gloves. He was no more proud of his
team than the team was of him. After the line was broken
up by the railroad he drove for some years what was called a
Roxbury hourly, running with its alternate mate from that
part of Washington street between State street and Cornhill, to
tbe Norfolk house and back. He always drove four horses,
and his omnibus was not far from twenty feet long, and to
reach his Boston station he would drive up Court street and
down Cornhill. Mr. Bates married in 1827 Hannah S., daugh-
ter of John Faunce of Plymouth, but I know neither the place
or date of his death.

Another estimable and much respected driver was Phineas
Pierce, the father of Phineas Pierce, now a retired merchant
in Boston, and a recent member of the School Committee in
that city, and a trustee of the Boston Public Library. He
married in 1829 Dorcas M., daughter of Caleb Faunce of
Plymouth, and died August 10, 1841. His death was a sad

l6o PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

one. He stopped at Hanover to take a passenger, and in
strapping the trunks on the rack of the stage he stood on the
hub of the hind wheel, and throwing himself back with his
whole weight on the strap, the strap broke, and falling to the
ground, he was instantly killed.

There were other lines of stages within my recollection run-
ning to New Bedford, Middleboro and Bridgewater, with head-
quarters at Bradford's and Randall's taverns in which Oliver
Harris, Theophilus Rickard and Henry Carter and others were
employed as drivers. Mr. Carter, who drove the Bridgewater
stage some years, married in 1833, Maria Bartlett Banks, and
for many years before his death he was the Plymouth station
master of the Old Colony Railroad. Mr. Harris came from
New Bedford and married in 1835 Ruth Rogers (Goddard)
Fish, widow of Samuel Fish, and daughter of Benjamin God-
dard of Plymouth. Our late townsmen, Capt. Wm. O. Harris
and Christopher T. Harris, were his sons.

The dancing school which I attended in the Plymouth Hotel,
was kept by F. C Schaffer in 1833 and 1834. There were no
local dancing masters in those days, and professionals occu-
pied the field, and as the lawyers say, followed the circuit.
They would arrange schools in different towns for five after-
noons and evenings in the week, and drive from one to another,
reaching their homes on Saturday. There were other pro-
fessionals who preceded and followed Mr. Schaffer, anions
whom were S. Whitney in 1828, and Lovet Stimson in 1830,
who taught in Burbank's hall on Middle street. At the rear
end of the Burbank house, which stood immediately above the
present house of Winslow S. Holmes, there was a two story
projection, the lower part of which was occupied by Samuel
Burbank's bake house, above which was the hall in question.
All I remember of the schools in that hall is that on the closing-
night of the term in one or the other, when pupils were permit-
ted to dance until twelve o'clock, and invite their friends, a ter-
rific thunder storm set in before midnight with heavy rain and
fearful lightning, which continued so that pupils and parents,
my mother with the rest, were unable to reach home until the
small hours of the morning. In those days it was the fashion
for women to wear as stiffeners in their corsets busks made of
wood or whalebone or steel, and doubtless on that as on sim-

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. l6l

ilar occasions, those who wore steel drew them deftly from
their waists, and put them where the lightning would fail to
find them.

While Danville Bryant was keeping the Pilgrim House, men
more or less generally adopted the fashion of wearing skin
tight trousers spreading closely over the instep and fastened
with a strap under the foot. The most conspicuous persons in
Plymouth to adopt this fashion were Mr. Bryant and Capt.
Simeon Dike. Of course the trousers and boots had to be
put on and off together, thus making the fashion too trouble-
some to last, and by a process of evolution the cloth or leather
gaiters followed. It is as true in dress as in other things that
one extreme follows another, and so the next fashion for men
was for loose trousers with full plaited or gathered bodies.

In 1840 the Pilgrim House passed into the hands of Francis
J. Goddard, who kept it two or three years, and was succeeded
by Stephen Lucas, who again was succeeded in 1845 by Joseph
White. Of course Mr. Goddard, son of Daniel and Beulah
(Simmons) Goddard, is remembered by most of my readers.
Mr. Lucas was a man of varied occupations during his long
life. A wheelwright by trade, he kept several kinds of stores
later, a stable on School street, the Pilgrim House, a photo-
graph saloon, and last a fruit store, as the predecessor of
Charles H. Churchill on Main street. He was the son of Sam-
uel and Jemima (Robbins) Lucas of Carver, and married in
1820 Rebecca Holmes of Plymouth, and died November 23,
1888. Joseph White, previous to his taking the hotel, had a
stall in the Plymouth market. The Hotel was burned June
20, 1846, and Mr. White left Plymouth and carried on a board-
ing house in Boston on the corner of Bedford and Lincoln
streets.

The Pilgrim House was burned as I have stated, June 20,
1846. I was in Europe at the time, but my letters from home
told me about the midnight fire, and about the appearance on
the scene of Dr. Wm. J. Walker, a director of the Old Colony
Railroad, in his drawers. He was occupying for the summer
the house on North street now occupied by the Misses Russell.
After the Masonic building, then -called the Union building,
was built on the site of the Pilgrim house, one of its first ten-
ants was Dr. Samuel Merritt, already fully referred to in a

l62 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

former chapter, who occupied the two rooms on the corner,
one for his office, and one for his sleeping room. After Dr.
Merritt went to California in 1849, the rooms were occupied
successively by Dr. F. B. Brewer, dentist, Dr. Robert D. Fos-
ter, and Dr. Sylvanus Bramhall, also dentists, and by Dr. James
L. Hunt. Winslow S. Holmes at one time occupied a barber
shop in a rear room on Middle street, and also at one time,
Charles T. May and Lysander Dunham had shops in the north-
erly Main street room. The other occupants of the street
floor and basement, many of whom will be recalled by my read-
ers, have been too numerous to mention. The corner room
upstairs was occupied in 1850 by Wm. H. Spear, attorney-at-
law, and the other room, together with the hall, called Union
Hall, was used by the Standish Guards. Until 1869, when the
building came into the possession of the Masons, the hall was
used for miscellaneous purposes, including dancing schools
kept by Wm. Atwood and others, cotillion parties, lectures and
exhibitions.

The next site, on which the engine house stands, was occu-
pied farther back than 1830 by a dwelling house, in which lived
on the south side Dr. Nathan Hayward, and on the north side
two of my great aunts, Miss Hannah White, who died Jan.
3, 1 841, at the age of ninety-four, and her sister, Mrs. Joanna
Winslow, who died in May, 1829.

Dr. Hayward was the son of Nathan and Susanna (Latham)
Hayward of Bridgewater, and in 1793-4 was a surgeon in the
United States Army, under Major General Anthony Wayne in
the war against the western Indians. In 1795 he married An-
na, daughter of Pelham and Joanna (White) Winslow, and set-
tled in Plymouth. He was at one time in partnership with Dr.
James Thacher, and with him was instrumental in establishing
the first stage line to Boston in 1796. He was my mother's
family physician, and I have a vivid recollection of his adminis-
tration to my rebellious stomach of senna and salts, tincture of
rhubarb and castor oil, and also of that instrument fearfully
and wonderfully made with which he occasionally extracted a
tooth. He was appointed in 1814 by the Governor sheriff of
Plymouth county, and continued in office until 1843. His
youngest son, George Partridge Hayward, now living in Bos-
ton, was named after hjs predecessor in office, George Par-

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 1 63

tridge of Duxbury. Dr. Hayward in 1831 formed a profes-
sional partnership with his nephew, Dr. Winslow Warren, and
died June 16, 1848.

Pelham Winslow, the husband of Mrs. Joanna Winslow, was
a son of General John and Mary (Little) Winslow, well known
as the officer in command of the expedition for the removal
from Acadia of the neutral French, and married in 1770 Joan-
na, daughter of Gideon and Joanna (Howland) White. He
graduated at Harvard in 1753. In 1768 he and James Hovey
of Plymouth were the only barristers at law in Plymouth
County, thus holding a position at the bar above that of either
Attorney-at-law or counsellor. At the coming on of the rev-
olution he adhered to the crown, and after the evacuation of
Boston, joined the British Army in New York, where he was
appointed paymaster general. He died on Long Island in
1783, leaving in Plymouth his widow and two daughters, Anna
above mentioned, who married Dr. Hayward, and Mary, who
married Henry Warren. With little means of her own, and
wishing to do what she could to maintain herself and family,
her father, Gideon White, who owned the house in question,
built an addition, coming out to the sidewalk, and fitted up the
lower story for her store. The last time I saw the old lady
she and her sister, after taking tea at our house, fitted out for
home with a lantern, which in those days everybody carried on
dark evenings, as there were no street lights of any kind. An
incident which occurred many years after in one of the finan-
cial panics, recalled her to my mind. Mr. Wm. R. Sever,
county treasurer, came to me one day in great distress, because
he was unable to borrow at any of the banks ten thousand dol-
lars to meet county obligations coming due, and asked me to
help him. I went to Boston, and, knowing that it would be
useless to apply at any bank, went to see Mr. Ebenezer Francis,
living in Pemberton Square, who with Abbot Lawrence, Robert
G. Shaw and Peter C. Brooks, were the only persons in Boston
rated at a million, while now you can't turn a corner without
running against a millionaire. "No, Mr. Davis, I cannot loan
the money to the county," Mr. Francis said in answer to my
application. "I am a poor man. I have one hundred thous-
and dollars lying in the old Boston bank, drawing no interest."
"But," said I, "here is a good opportunity to place a portion of

164 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

it at interest" "But I don't like the security, I can't put every
man in the county in jail." "May I ask what you call good se-
curity" I rejoined. "Yes, sir," with an emphasis which show-
ed his business training at a time when commercial honor was
more potent than law — "a note based on a business transaction
signed by the buyer and endorsed by the seller." But I got
my money much to the joy of Mr. Sever, and the obligations of
the county were paid.

Before I left he asked me if I had ever heard of a Mrs. Joan-
na Winslow, and he was interested to learn that she was my
great aunt. More than fifty years ago he said he kept a store
on Washington street, where she bought for her store pins and
needles and ribbon, buttons and laces for her stock in trade.
"She was very much of a lady," he added, and was remember-
ed by him always with pleasure. It was a surprise to him to
learn that Judge Charles Henry Warren, whom he knew very
well, was her grandson.

The interview presented to my mind two transitions in the
shifting scenes of life — one from the home of gentle blood to
the little store, and the other from the little store to the man-
sion of the millionaire.

After the death of Miss Hannah White in 1841, William S.
Russell moved into the part of the house which had been oc-
cupied by her and made it his home with his .family until his
death, and after the death of Mrs. Dr. Hayward the house
was occupied for a time by the Old Colony Club, until it was
bought by the town. The little store was abandoned by Mrs.
Winslow after a few years' occupancy, and used as a store by
James LeBaron. As far back as I can remember it was occu-
pied by John Thomas, attorney-at-law, who was succeeded by
Gustavus Gilbert, also an attorney, who occupied it until 1845.
In that year William S. Russell occupied it as a grocery store,
followed by Miss Priscilla Hedge with a circulating library.
Capt. Eleazer Stevens Turner then occupied it as a grocery
store, succeeded by Pelham Winslow Hayward, who had his
office there until the town bought the estate.

Gustavus Gilbert was a son of David Gilbert, an attorney-
at-law in Mansfield, who graduated at Harvard in 1797. Mr.
Gilbert came to Plymouth not far from 1830, and married
Caroline Eliza, daughter of Dr. Isaac LeBaron. He practiced
law in Plymouth many years, and died September 1, 1865.

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 165

William S. Russell was a son of James and Experience
(Shaw) Russell, and married in 1820 Mary Winslow, daugh-
ter of Dr. Nathan Hayward. After the firm of Davis & Rus-
sell in Plymouth, of which he was a member, was dissolved in
1827, he moved to Boston, and for a time was in the wholesale
dry goods business in Central street, the senior member of the
firm of Russell, Shaw & Freeman. After the dissolution of
the partnership in 1829, he formed a partnership with Wm.
Sturtevant in the same business, which continued two years,
when he continued the business in partnership with Andrew
L. Russell. When the last firm discontinued business he went
to Illinois as the representative of parties in Plymouth and
Boston, owners of land in that state, and after his return set-
tled in Plymouth. In 1846 he was chosen Register of Deeds
for Plymouth County, and continued in office until his death.
He was a careful student of Pilgrim history, and by the publi-
cation in 1846 of a "Guide to Plymouth and Recollections of
the Pilgrims," and in 1855 of "Pilgrim Memorials and Guide
to Plymouth," made valuable contributions to Pilgrim litera-
ture. He died in Plymouth, February 22, 1863.

l66 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

CHAPTER XVIII.

I remember the occupants of the building north of the en-
gine house as far back as 1828. On the 9th of July in that
year, I was playing on the sloping cellar door, while the funeral
procession of Henry Warren was forming in front of the next
house. The house in question was occupied on the north side
by David Turner, and on the south side down stairs by Mrs.
Grace (Hayman) Goddard, and her sister, Abigail Otis, and
up stairs on the south side by Betsey Morton Jackson, and
her sister, Maria Torrey Jackson, daughters of Woodworth
Jackson. Betsey Morton Jackson died June 10, 1827, and her
sister Maria became one of the family of my grandmother,
after her removal to Boston, and died in Boston, May 18, 1856.

David Turner was a son of David and Deborah (Lothrop)
Turner, and married in 1793 Lydia Washburn. I remember
him well with his military walk and bearing. His pew was in
the northwest corner of the old church, and I can see him now
entering by the north door and marching up to his seat with a
soldierly air and step.

Mrs. Goddard and Miss Otis were daughters of John and
Hannah (Churchill) Otis of Plymouth. Grace Hayman mar-
ried in 1796 John* Goddard, a surgeon in the United States
Navy, who while serving on board the sloop of war Boston,
died at Gibralter, June 15, 1802, at the age of thirty-two years.
She had two daughters : Harriet Otis, born in 1797, who mar-
ried Abraham Jackson, and Mary, who married Arthur French
of Boston. Mrs. Goddard, as long as I knew her, kept a little
store in the southerly corner room now occupied by a furni-
ture store, which was once the law office of James Otis, the
patriot, and died February 8, 1851, and her sister Abigail died
February 11, 1857.

Not many years after the death of David Turner, his part of
the house was occupied some years by James Thurber, who
came to Plymouth in 1832, and conducted until his death, the
Old Colony Memorial. That paper, under his management,
had able contributions to its columns, and held a high position

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 167

among the country newspapers of the state. Mr. Thurber was
an ardent Whig, and during the political campaigns of the
period, exerted a potent influence on the voters of Plymouth
county. I knew him well, and from the time when as a boy I
assisted on Friday evenings in folding newspapers in his of-
fice, until his death I enjoyed his friendship. He married in
183 1 Elizabeth, daughter of Asa Dan forth of Taunton, and
sister of Allen Danforth of Plymouth, and had Eliza-
beth 1832, and in 1839 James Danforth, Treasurer
of the Plymouth Savings Bank. He moved into the house in
question from the house where he had lived some years on the
corner of Leyden and Market streets. Mr. Thurber died May
20, 1857. Among the tenants of the house in later times were
Wm. H. Spear, John Perkins, John Morissey and Mrs. Thomas
Atwood, and the stores have been occupied by Keith and
Cooper, pharmacists, J. W. Cooper, pharmacist, the Loring
pharmacy, by Baumgartner, James B. Collingwood & Sons,
and W. N. Snow, all furniture dealers.

On the south side of the dwelling house on the corner of
North street, was a yard with a chaise house and stable in its
rear. In 1839 Allen Danforth bought the yard and outbuild-
ings and built the house now occupied by the post office in
which he lived until his death.

He was a son of Asa and beborah (Thayer) Danforth of
Taunton, where he was born, January 18, 1796, and married
December 30, 1818, Lydia Presbry, daughter of William Sea-
ver of that town. In 1821 he established in Taunton the Old
Colony Reporter, edited by Jacob Chapin, the first number of
which was issued April 4, in that year. In the spring of 1822
he came to Plymouth and established the Old Colony Me-
morial, the first number of which was issued to two hundred
and twenty-three subscribers, May 4, in that year. In its early
years the Memorial occupied a chamber in Market street,
over the store of Antipas Brigham. In 1836 he gave up the
management of the paper to his brother-in-law, James Thur-
ber, the printing office being then located on Main street.

The Plymouth Institution for Savings, whose name was
changed in 1847 *° the Plymouth Savings Bank, and with
which Mr. Danforth was for forty-three years identified, was
incorporated June 11, 1828, and on the 25th of July Barnabas

l68 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

Hedge was chosen President, and Benjamin Marston Watson,
Treasurer. On the first of August, 1829, the same officers
were chosen, but Mr. Watson declining, Mr. Danforth was
chosen in his place. The place of business of the bank was at
first in the Plymouth Bank on Court street, and as its annual
meetings were held in various places, sometimes at the Plym-
outh Bank, sometimes in the reading room, and again at the
Old Colony Bank — it is difficult to locate for some years its
actual resting place. I am quite sure, however, that for a time
its office was in the room on Main street, in which John S.
Hayward had kept a store where H. H. Cole is now in business.

The Old Colony Insurance Company was incorporated
March 6, 1835, with a capital of $50,000, and organized with
Jacob Covington, president, and Mr. Danforth secretary, and
shared an office with the savings institution. On the 2d of
June, 1 841, the institution for savings jointly with the Plym-
outh Bank, the Old Colony Bank, and the Old Colony Insur-
ance Company, bought of Thomas and William Jackson a
vacant lot on Main street, and erected a building into which
those institutions moved in 1842. Mr. Danforth retired from
the office of secretary of the Insurance Company in 1853, and
subsequently its charter was surrendered.

At the time of the establishment of the Savings Bank, such
institutions were comparatively new and general confidence
in their soundness had not been established. Facilities for
reaching Plymouth were imperfect, and consequently the early
growth of the bank was slow. The custom of hoarding, how-
ever, was soon abandoned, and the integrity of Mr. Danforth,
and his discreet management of the Bank soon attracted a
rapidly increasing business. Its deposits, which at the end of
five years, had only reached one hundred thousand dollars,
amounted according to the last statement made by Mr. Dan-
forth in December, 1871, to $1,759,189.97, while since that
time about three-quarters of a million have been added.

Mr. Danforth was a man possessing traits of character
which fitted him for the responsible position in which he was
placed. He was eminently a man of a judicial mind, and if he
had been bred to the law he would have been a leader at the
bar, or a distinguished judge. No statute or decision touching
financial matters escaped his notice, while court reports, recent

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 1 69

or old, relating to banks and banking, were familiar to him.
During his life he devoted himself to the welfare of the insti-
tution under his care, neither seeking office nor accepting it,
except twice as representative, and twice as a member of the
board of selectmen. While repeatedly solicited to act as exe-
cutor or administrator or trustee, he was only in few excep-
tional cases willing to assume their distracting responsibilities.
Mr. Danforth's death was a sad one. He was taken with
smallpox, and before many of his fellow citizens were aware
of his sickness, he died May 28, 1872. Death came near the
midnight hour, and before morning he was buried, unattended,
except by those who were immune. A funeral service was
held in the Unitarian church, Sunday, June 2, and a fitting
tribute was then paid to his memory.

The Warren house on the corner of North street was occu-
pied as long ago as I can remember by Henry Warren, the son
of James Warren, of the revolution, whose wife was Mercy
Otis, sister of James Otis, and who lived in the house in ques-
tion. Mr. Warren was born in 1764, and married in 1791
Mary, daughter of Pelham and Joanna (White) Winslow.
He was the collector of the port from 1803 to 1820, and died
July 6, 1828. He had two daughters and seven sons. Of these
James died young, and Mary Ann died unmarried. Marcia
married in 1813, John Torrey, and was the mother of Henry
Warren Torrey, late professor of history at Harvard. Wins-
low, born in 1795, graduated at Harvard in 1813, and fitting
himself for the practice of medicine settled in Plymouth, where
as early as 1831 he became a partner of Dr. Nathan Hayward.
His office was for some years at the corner of North street,
and there in 1832 I was examined by him as chairman of the
School Committee for admission into the High School. He
married in January, 1835, Margaret, daughter of Dr. Zacheus
and Hannah (Jackson) Bartlett, and after the death of Dr.
Bartlett, which occurred December 25, 1835, he moved into his
office and occupied it until his death, June 10, 1870. Dr. War-
ren was not only learned and skillful in his profession, but was
also a man of mental culture, familiar with the world's affairs,
and decided in his opinions on the great questions of the day ;
a man of moral culture, conscientious to the last degree ; a man
of social culture, a true gentleman. Pelham Winslow Warren,

I70 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

born in 1797, graduated at Harvard in 1815, and from 1822 to
1831 was the clerk of the Massachusetts House of Represen-
tatives, holding also in 1829 the office of collector of the port
of Plymouth, and living in the Warren house. During the
last few years of his residence in Plymouth he was the super-
intendent of the Sunday school m the old church. The general
lessons given by him I remember well. They were not mere
platitudes, such as are often addressed to children, but inter-
esting and instructive in language adapted to young minds on
the handiwork of God in sea, earth and sky. Under his minis-
trations I became for the first time conscious of a power to
think. When the Railroad Bank in Lowell was incorporated
he was appointed its cashier, and lived some years in that city.
When he retired from the Bank he removed to Boston, and
engaged in the banking and brokerage business until his death.
He married at Clark's Island in 1825, Jeanette, daughter of
John and Lucia (Watson) Taylor, and died in Boston, Octo-
ber 6, 1848.

Charles Henry Warren, born September 29, 1798, graduated
at Harvard in 1817. He studied law with Joshua Thomas of
Plymouth and Levi Lincoln of Worcester, and settled in New
Bedford first as a partner of Lemuel Williams, and later of
Thomas Dawes Eliot, and from 1832 to 1839 was District At-
torney for the five southern counties of Massachusetts. In
1839 he was appointed Judge of the Common Pleas Court,
continuing on the bench until 1844, when he removed to Bos-
ton and associated himself with the law firm of Fiske and
Rand, composed of Augustus H. Fiske and Benjamin Rand.
He appeared as counsel for the defendant in the memorable
trial of Rev. Joy H. Fairchild, charged with adultery, and se-
cured his acquittal. Experiencing premonitions of heart dis-
ease he abandoned practice, and in 1846 was chosen president
of the Boston and Providence railroad, remaining in office until
1867. He was president of the Massachusetts Senate in 185 1,
and president of the Pilgrim Society from 1845 to 1852. He
married Abby, daughter of Barnabas and Eunice Dennie
(Burr) Hedge of Plymouth, and died in Plymouth, June 29,
1874. As no monument or stone marks the place of his bur-
ial, I think it proper to say that the bodies of both himself and
wife were deposited in the Warren tomb.

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. VJ1

Richard Warren was born in 1805, and in early manhood
embarked in business in Boston and failed, settling with his
creditors for a percentage on their claims. He afterwards re-
moved to New York, where he engaged successfully in an
auction commission business, confined chiefly to cargo sales of
teas, sugar, coffee and other importations. As soon as his
recuperated financial condition warranted, he discharged prin-
cipal and interest the old indebtedness from which he had
been formally released. He was president of the Pilgrim
Society from 1852 to 1861, and the two great celebrations of
the anniversary of the embarkation of the Pilgrims on Mon-
day, the first of August, 1853, and Tuesday, the second of
August, 1859, owe their inspiration largely to him. He mar-
ried first Angelina, daughter of Dr. Wm. Pitt Greenwood of
Boston, and sister of Rev. Francis Wm. Pitt Greenwood of
King's Chapel, and second, Susan Gore of Boston, and died in
Boston, April 12, 1875.

George Warren, born in 1807, in early manhood made sev-
eral voyages as supercargo in the Havana and Russia trade.
The ship Harvest belonging to Barnabas Hedge, in which I
think he sailed when bound with sugar, to Russia, would put
into Plymouth to obtain a clean bill of health before complet-
ing her voyage. He afterwards went to New York and formed
a partnership with Ebenezer Crocker, a native of Barnstable,
tinder the firm name of Crocker & Warren. The firm owned
the following ships : Alert and Talisman, commanded by Capt.
Gamaliel Thomas of Plymouth ; Queen of the East, commanded
by Capt. Truman Bartlett, Jr., of Plymouth ; Raven, command-
ed by Capt. Bursley of Barnstable; Archer, commanded by
Capt. Henry, and the Skylark, commanded by Capt. Bursley.
Capt Thomas made seven voyages to Calcutta and California
in their employ, and Mr. Warren told me once that his ac-
counts were always so complete and accurate that he could
settle with him a nine months' Calcutta voyage in fifteen
minutes. In the great fire which occurred in New York, De-
cember 23 and 24, 1835, which burned six hundred and seven-
ty-four houses between lower Broadway and the East River,
Crocker & Warren had five hundred bags of saltpetre stored
in a warehouse burned, and the cause of repeated explosions
which occurred, was for a time a mystery, leading to the often

I72 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

repeated question — will saltpetre explode? It was finally de-
termined that while saltpetre alone is not explosive, the carbon
furnished by the burned bags formed an explosive mixture.
He married Elizabeth, daughter of Barnabas and Eunice Den-
nie (Burr) Hedge, and died in New York, November 20, 1866.

Edward J. Warren, born in 1809, was in business in New
York many years, a part of the time associated with his brother
Richard. Of ready wit and quick eye, and with a familiarity
with prices he was one of the most attractive and efficient
salesmen in New York. He married Mary, daughter of Wm.
G. Coffin, the official head for many years of the Massachusetts
land office, and died in New York April 27, 1872.

Soon after Henry Warren died, Madam Warren removed
to Boston and lived some years on Allston street, but later
returned to Plymouth and occupied successively until her
death, the house on Middle street, next to Mr. Beaman's un-
dertaking rooms, and the house on Main street, where the new
bank building stands. In 1833 Dr. Isaac LeBaron moved into
the Warren house, and in 1836 occupied the apothecary's shop,
which Dr. Warren had vacated. I not only remember the gild-
ed pestle and mortar over his door, but also the sugar baker's
molasses, which he kept in stock furnished to him by the father
or brother of his wife, who owned a sugar refinery in Leverett
street, Boston. Almost as dark colored as tar, and nearly hard
enough to cut with a knife, it was like the witch's gruel, "thick
and slab," and those who now eat buckwheat cakes with honey
or syrup, have little idea how good they were eaten with that
sugar baker's molasses. Dr. LeBaron died January 29, 1849.

At various times the Warren house was occupied by Mrs.
Wm. Spooner, the family of Capt. Wm. Bartlett, and in still
later times by the Young Men's Literary Institute, the Public
Library, the Custom House, and stores of Wm. Babb, John
Churchill, Pratt & Hedge, James C. Bates, Davis and Whiting,
N. M. Davis, Edgar Seavey, Allen Holmes and Edward Baker
and Allen T. Holmes. Among the transient residents were
Mrs. Ann Boutelle, widow of Dr. Caleb Boutelle, and her
daughter Anne Lincoln, boarding with one of the permanent
families in the house. The south front chamber is hallowed in
my memory, for there on the 5th of December, 1835, Anne
Lincoln Boutelle, one of my playmates and schoolmates, died

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 173

in consumption, one too sweet and pure and frail to tread the
rough paths of life. I saw her a day or two before she died,
with a little table by her bed side laden with gifts of fruit and
flowers, which loving friends had sent, and to which I added
rny own. I never go into the printing office, which includes the
chamber in which she died, without recalling her saintly face,
lier saintly voice, and her saintly spirit, joyous at the thought
of journeying home. A memorial of her life and character
was published, written by Mary Ann Stevenson, a niece of Mrs.
Judge Joshua Thomas, a copy of which if one can be found,
I am anxious to obtain.

The Odd Fellows' lot on the corner of Main street and Town
Square, included as long ago as I can remember the sites of
two houses, one on Main street and one on the square. In this
chapter only the occupants of the former will be considered.
Jn 1829 there were two stores on the lower floor facing Main
street, and two tenements above. The store on the corner was
occupied by Salisbury Jackson, who removed in 1835 to a
store, which he had fitted up in his house on the south side of
Leyden street. He was succeeded by Joseph Cushman, who
has been already noticed.

Mr. Cushman was succeeded by J. M. Perry, agent, and Mr.
Perry by Henry Orson Steward and Eleazer C. Sherman in
the grain business. Mr. Steward, who previously was a mem-
ber of the firm of Steward and Alderman, carrying on a dry
goods store on Leyden street, came to Plymouth from Connec-
ticut, and married Bethiah, daughter of Samuel West and Lois
(Thomas) Bagnall. He finally removed from Plymouth, and
after a second marriage, died in Framingham. Mr. Sherman
later carried on the business alone, removing to a store at
the head of Hedge's wharf, where he remained as long as he
continued business in Plymouth. He later became a wholesale
dealer, receiving in Plymouth and Boston constant shipments
of corn, which were sold in the various markets of the state.
He was President of the Old Colony Bank for a time, a mem-
ber of the executive council, and finally, until his death, Presi-
dent of the Commonwealth National Bank in Boston. He was
a son of Levi and Lydia (Crocker) Sherman of Carver, and
was born in 181 7. He married first Louisa Jane Gurney of
North Bridgewater, now Brockton, and second in 1878 Mary

174 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

L. (Perkins) Thayer, widow of Edward D. Thayer of Boston,
and died in Boston.

Mr. Sherman was succeeded by Thomas Loring, who occu-
pied the store many years. Mr. Loring was son of Ezekiel
and Lydia (Sherman) Loring of Plympton, and married Lucy,
daughter of Jonathan Parker of Plympton, and died in Boston
a few years ago.

The next store was occupied at various times by Bridgham
Russell, Jeremiah Farris, Benjamin Hathaway, Henry Howard
Robbins, Edward Bartlett, Reuben Peterson, Lewis Peterson,
and Wm. F. Peterson. Mr. Russell has already been referred
to. Mr. Farris was a son of Jeremiah and Lydia (Eldridge)
Farris of Barnstable, and was born in that town in 1810. He
married in 1832 Mary, daughter of Nathaniel and Betsey
(Woodward) Carver of Plymouth, and settled in Plymouth,
He first formed a partnership in the dry goods business with
Benjamin Hathaway, and after the partnership was dissolved
Mr. Hathaway continued in business, and added the business
of making neck stocks. Not long after Mr. Farris joined with
Oliver Edes in the manufacture of rivets in North Marshfield,
and Plymouth, and finally established the Plymouth Mills,
which is still in active business as a corporation under the
management of his son-in-law, Wm. P. Stoddard. Mr. Farris
was the sixth captain of the Standish Guards. Mr. Hathaway
afterwards continued the stock business in other locations, and
the first time I ever saw Chief Justice Albert Mason, he
was at a bench in Mr. Hathaway's shop cutting out material
for stocks. Nothing in the career of Mr. Mason as artisan,
lawyer, soldier and Judge, impressed me as much as his resolve
while working at his bench to change the current of his life.
The flow of the tide never specially impresses me, but when I
see the buoys change their slant from East to West, I begin
to wonder.

Mr. Mason was the son of Albert T. and Arlina (Orcutt)
Mason, and was born in Middleboro, Mass., Nov. 7, 1836. He
came to Plymouth in 1853, and after working a short time in
Mr. Hatha way's stock factory, he studied law in Plymouth with
Edward L. Sherman, and was admitted to the Plymouth bar
Feb. 15, i860. In July, 1862, I was requested to raise two
companies to be attached to the 38th Regiment, and recommend

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 175

their officers, and in accordance with that request I raised
Companies D and G, and recommended Mr. Mason for the post
of second lieutenant of Company D. He was duly commis-
sioned, and afterwards promoted to be first lieutenant, Captain
and Assistant Brigade Quartermaster. At the close of the
war he resumed practice in Plymouth, and in 1874, removing
to Brookline, was appointed by Governor Washburn a member
of the Board of Harbor Commissioners. In 1879 he was ap-
pointed a member of the Board of Harbor and Land Commis-
sioners by Governor Talbot; Judge of the Superior Court by
Governor Long in 1882, and Chief Justice in 1890 by Governor
Brackett. He married November 25, 1857, Lydia F., daughter
of Nathan and Experience (Finney) Whiting of Plymouth.
In 1893 he received from Dartmouth the degree of LL. D.,
and died in Brookline January 2, 1906.

Henry Howard Robbins was the son of Rufus and Mar-
garet (Howard) Robbins, and was born in Plymouth in 181 1.
He was a hatter by trade, and at various times occupied other
stores on Main street. My first recollection of him was as a
member of the old Plymouth Band, organized soon after 1830.
The members of the band, according to my recollection, were
Bradford Barnes, leader, clarinet; William Atwood, trom-
bone; John Atwood, serpent; Eleazer H. Barnes, cornopean;
James M. Bradford, bassoon ; Samuel H. Doten, clarinet ; John
N. Drew, trombone ; Nathaniel D. Drew, bugle ; Edward Hath-
away, bass drum; Albert Leach, bugle; Thomas Long, fife;
Seth Morton, snare drum; Edmund Robbins, orphicleide;
Henry Howard Robbins, clarinet; Albert Finney, bugle, and
Ellis Rogers, bass drum.

The orphicleide, one of the instruments above mentioned,
had a short career, and has not only gone out of use, but also
almost out of memory. I have been unable to find any one be-
sides myself who remembers it. The proprietor of the music
store in Plymouth never heard of it. No one in the store of
John C. Haynes & Co:, of Boston, remembers it, and the leader
of the band in Cambridge on Commencement Day told me that
he had no recollection of it. I remember it distinctly, a brass
instrument about three feet long and six inches in its largest
diameter, and with a curved mouthpiece, resembling somewhat
that of the bassoon. The snare drum, which in its oblong form

I76 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

stood the test of four hundred years, has since my youth de-
generated into the present instrument, which resembles in
shape and size a generous Herkimer county cheese. The trom-
bone, probably the ancient sackbut, has held its own. and is the
oldest musical instrument now in use. Mr. Robbins married
Mercy Morton, daughter of John Eddy, and died December
19, 1872.

Reuben Peterson was the son of Elijah and Abigail (Whit-
temore) Peterson of Duxbury, and was born in that town
about 1788, and married in 1812 Mary, daughter of Benjamin
White of Hanover. He was a hatter by trade, and he, as well
as his son Lewis, who died October 5, 1878, and grandson,
William F., now living, are remembered by my readers.

Edward Bartlett was a harness maker, and occupied this as
well as other stores. He was the son of Stephen and Polly
(Nye) Bartlett, and was born in Plymouth. He married Bet-
sey Beal of Kingston, and died within the memory of many
readers.

Mr. Hathaway above-mentioned, retiring from active busi-
ness, became a director of the Plymouth National Bank and
devoted himself to the care of his ample property. He mar-
ried in 1828 Hannah, daughter of William Nye of Plymouth,
and second in 1857, Sally Barnes, daughter of George W.
Virgin, and died July 15, 1880.

In my early youth the second story was occupied by Mrs.
Francis Leonard Maynard and Dr. Hervey N. Preston. Mrs.
Maynard, the daughter of Major William and Anna (Barnes)
Jackson, was born in Plymouth in 1789, and married February
5, 1 82 1, Samuel Maynard. She occupied the whole front of
two rooms on Main street, and one room on the northerly side
of the building separated from the other two by a narrow entry
to which access was had by an outside flight of stairs leading
from Main street. The corner room on the square she occupied
as a schoolroom, in which she taught boys and girls from about
six to ten years of age. I was one of her pupils, and must
have entered the school as early as 1828, because I remember
seeing the engines go by on their way to the fire which burned
the anchor works in that year. Among my fellow pupils I
can recall Jane Elizabeth Bartlett, daughter of James Bartlett,
who married Thatcher R. Raymond ; Mary Holbrook, daugh-

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. If?

ter of Jacob Covingtoh, who married George H. Bates of
Brooklyn, N. Y., and her sister Martha, Betsey Foster Ripley,
daughter of Deacon Wm. Putnam and Elizabeth Foster (Mor-
ton) Ripley, Priscilla and Barnabas Hedge, children of Isaac
L. Hedge, and Francis L. and George Maynard, children of
the teacher. Mrs. Maynard was at that time a widow and an
ideal schoolmistress. She was an accomplished lady, and
taught not only the ordinary branches of a school edu-
cation, but also sewing and, above all, good man-
ners. I carried away from her school as evidence
of my industry and skill a section of a patchwork bed quilt,
and I trust also some of the fruits of her lessons in deportment.
I may incidentally say that the wife of Rev. Dr. Mann of Trin-
ity church in Boston is a grandchild of Mrs. Bates, one of the
pupils above mentioned. I think that Lucy Ann Jackson, a
granddaughter of Benjamin Crandon, was also a pupil, and
much the oldest girl in the school, who is now remembered
because I recall the dinners she brought to eat at the noon re-
cess. Mrs. Maynard's daughter Frances married a lawyer in
St. Louis, and her son disappeared from my memory soon
after my schoolboy days. The chief punishment in the school
was standing in the corner wearing a foolscap, and one
girl who was exemplary and conscientious in after life, scarce-
ly passed a day without suffering this punishment.

The chambers in the westerly end of the house occupied by
Dr. Preston, were reached by a door with a projecting porch
on the southerly side of the building eight or ten feet from the
town tree, which stood on what is now the gutter in the square.
The stairway from the outside door led to a broad hall above
which separated the school room from Dr. Preston's sitting
room. These two rooms had broad folding doors which were
used when the building was a hotel, and called after its owner,
the Witherell tavern. John Howland, who died in Newport
not many years ago at the age of 97, said in his diary, "that at
the Pilgrim celebration, December 2, 1803, the dinner was held
in a large old house, in which the partitions in the chambers
had been removed to make room for the tables." He doubtless
took it for granted that what were really doorways were open-
ings made for the occasion. I remember well the folding
doors. Dr. Preston came to Plymouth in 1829. He was the

I7& PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

son of Amariah and Hannah (Reed) Preston, and was born in
Pedford, Mass., June 21, 1806. He married a Miss Sargent,
and practiced in Plymouth until his death, which occurred in
Boston July 14, 1837.

The later occupants of the second story were Thomas Lor-
ing, Augustus Deming, Lydia Keyes, who died June 30, 1873,
at the age of 75 years, and Jacob Howland, who died June 3,
1876, at the age of 82 years.

The building in question stood ten feet or more back from
the southerly line of the lot, while the building above it on
the square, came out to the sidewalk. When Odd Fellows'
Hall was built the open space was built upon. About 1850
Mr. Isaac Brewster, representing the owners of the lot, erected
a two story building in the yard on its northeast corner, which
was occupied below for many years by Wm. Bishop, as early
as 1845, a* the Old Colony bookstore, and later by Charles
C. Doten, and above by William Davis as a lawyer's office, and
by Benjamin Whiting and Wm. S. Robbins, photographers.
In 1876 it was moved to a lot on Market street, below the bake
house, where it now stands. Odd Fellows' building had three
rooms on Main street. That in the corner was occupied many
years by the postoffice. The next was occupied by Stevens M.
Burbank, H. N. P. Hubbard, and Hathaway and Sampson,
and the third by Z. F. Leach, H. W. Dick, Alfred S. Burbank
and Hatch & Shaw. The building was destroyed by fire
January 10, 1904.

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 179

CHAPTER XIX.

There stood where the Sherman block stands until that block
was built a few years ago a two story wooden building occu-
pied in my boyhood by George W. Virgin at the south end,
and by Deacon Wm. P. Ripley at the north end. These stores
were at various times also occupied by Samuel Shaw & Co.,
Henry Tilson, Wm. Z. Ripley, Wm. T. Hollis, Southworth
Barnes, Stevens M. Burbank, Thomas Holsgrove, Jacob How-
land and Albert N. Fletcher.

Samuel Shaw, a son of Southworth and Maria (Churchill)
Shaw, was born in Plymouth in 1808, and married Mary Gibbs,
daughter of Simeon Dike, and died May 28, 1872. Mr. Vir-
gin, the son of John and Priscilla (Cooper) Virgin, married in
1816, Mary, daughter of Isaac and Lucy (Harlow) Barnes,
and died April 19, 1869. Henry Tilson, who died in January,
1835, and Wm. P. Ripley have been already referred to.
William Z. Ripley, the son of William P. and Mary (Briggs)
Ripley, was born in Plymouth and married Adeline B. Cush-
man. He finally removed to Boston. William T. Hollis, as
already mentioned in connection with the Bradford tavern,
was the son of Henry and Deborah (Leonard) Hollis, and was
born in Plymouth in 1826. He was jointly with Thomas
Prince, proprietor and editor of the Old Colony Memorial
from 1861 to 1863, and of the Memorial and Rock after the
Memorial was consolidated with the Plymouth Rock, jointly
with Thomas Prince and George F. Andrews, from 1863 to
1864. He died unmarried at the Plymouth Rock Hotel only a
few years ago. Southworth Barnes, son of William and
Mercy (Carver) Barnes, was born in Plymouth, and married
in 1633, Lucy, daughter of John and Lydia (Mason) Burbank.
After his death, which occurred October 29, 1861, his store
was taken by Stevens Mason Burbank, nephew of his wife,
who married in 185 1, Cornelia, daughter of Samuel and Re-
becca (Bradford) Doten. The rooms over the stores in the
building in question were occupied by various persons at vari-
ous times for miscellaneous purposes. Among the occupants

l8o PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

were the Plymouth Anti-Slavery Society, Thomas May, Ben-
jamin F. Field and Abel D. Breed, tailors, Benjamin Hatha-
way, manufacturer of neck stocks, Clary and Burr, barbers,
Dr. Sanborn, dentist, the Plymouth Free Press, newspaper,
P. T. Denney, and N. A. T. Jones, tailors, Thomas B. Drew
and Thomas D. Shumway, dentists.

The occupant of the next house from 1828 to 1837 was Dan-
iel Gale, a tailor whose shop on the other side of Main street
has been already mentioned. He was a son of Noah and Re-
becca Gale, but where he was born and when, I do not know.
He married Elizabeth, daughter of Edward Winslow of Dux-
bury, and probably about 1837 moved away from Plymouth, as
I find no record of his death. Like all men in his line of bus-
iness in localities too small for keeping an assortment of cloth,
he was only a tailor, and not a draper. Customers furnished
their own cloth, and by an unwritten law the tailor was entitled
to the remnants from which in time considerable profit accrued.
These remnants were universally, in Plymouth at least, called
cabbage. Hence the word cabbage as applied in the sense of
stealing or, to use a milder phrase, of taking possession of.
Mr. Gale, after a residence of some years in Plymouth, built the
block of houses between Sandwich street and the Mill pond,
which in my boyhood was known as Gale's Cabbage, implying
that it was built from the profits of his remnants.

Another house somewhat pretentious in style, received a
name suggested by a practice more reprehensible than one
which custom permitted. The owner was often employed as
a surveyor to run out large lots of woodland into smaller lots
for sale. In doing this work certain strips and gores of land
would be omitted, and in time sold as his own. The house
took the name of Strips and Gores, as having been built
from the proceeds of these sales. I mention neither the house
nor the name of its owner, because like many other stories, the
charge may have no foundation in fact, and I have no desire to
taint his memory. The next occupant of the house in ques-
tion was Dr. Levi Hubbard, the brother of our townsman, Dr.
Benjamin Hubbard, and father of Hervey N. P. Hubbard, the
librarian of the Pilgrim Society. He was succeeded in 1841
by John Washburn, who occupied a hardware and tin shop on
the street floor and the tenement above, many years. Harlow

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. l8l

& Barnes, a firm engaged in the same business, consisting of
John C. Barnes and Samuel Harlow, succeeded Mr. Wash-
burn, and were themselves succeeded by Harlow & Bailey,
the firm consisting of Samuel Harlow and H. Porter Bailey,
and by H. P. Bailey & Bro., the predecessors of the firm now
occupying it.

Dr. Levi Hubbard, son of Benjamin and Polly (Walker)
Hubbard, was born in Holden, Mass., and after graduating at
the medical college of Pittsfield, settled in Medfield, whence he
moved to Plymouth in 1839, and occupied the house in question
until May 29, 1841, when he moved to the north side of Town
Square. In January, 1844, i*1 consequence of a fire in the
house he occupied on the square, he removed to the house
above the town house, where he remained until November,
1844, when he removed to New Bedford. From New Bedford
he went to Chicopee, and in 1849 to California in the ship Ed-
ward Everett, sailing from Boston. Returning in 1851 after
short residences in Dutchess and Saratoga counties in New
York State, he removed to Iowa, and died in Glenwood in that
state in 1886. He married in 1837, Lurilla, daughter of Rog-
er Haskell of Peru, Mass., and his son, Hervey N. P. Hub-
bard was born in the house under consideration, in 1839.

The site of the house next north of the store of Bailey Bros,
is memorable as the site of the Bunch of Grapes Inn in the mid-
dle of the eighteenth century.

The house now standing was built by Joseph Avery, a book-
seller and book binder, who had branch establishments in Wor-
cester and Portland. In school book binding his concerns
were extensive and profitable. He came to Plymouth in 1807,
and up to 1816 occupied for-his business one of the one story
buildings on the east side of Main street already referred to.
On the 29th of July, 1822, while superintending the erection
of the building he incautiously stepped on a loose board and fell
from the upper story to the street floor, suffering injuries
which resulted in his death, on the fourth of the following
month at the age of forty-two years. In 1826 the house was
sold to Dr. Zacheus Bartlett, who occupied it both for his busi-
ness and home until his death, which occurred December 25,
1835. Dr. Bartlett was born in South Plymouth, September
20, 1768, and graduated at Harvard in 1789. He studied

l82 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

medicine with Dr. Ezekiel Hersey of Hingham,
and settled in his native town. He served his fel-
low citizens as their Representative in the General Court one or
more years, was one of the founders of the Pilgrim Society,
and its vice-president from 1828 to 1835, and by invitation of
the Town, delivered the oration on the Pilgrim anniversary in
1798. He married in 1796 Hannah, daughter of Samuel and
Experience (Atwood) Jackson, and up to the time of his occu-
pancy of the Main street house lived in a house on North street,
easterly of the house now occupied by Miss Lydia Jackson.
All through my boyhood there was a one story building in the
southeast corner of the yard which I have always supposed was
bis office. As I remember the house it was still owned by Dr.
Bartlett, and occupied by various tenants, and the office build-
ing was occupied by Thomas Maglathlin, who lived alone. Dr.
Bartlett had four children, Sydney, the eminent lawyer who
married Caroline Louisa Pratt of Boston, and for many years
was recognized as the leader of the Boston bar ; Margaret, who
married Dr. Winslow Warren, Dr. George Bartlett of Boston,
who married Amelia, a daughter of Dr. Wm. Pitt Greenwood
of Boston, and Caroline, who married James Pratt of Boston.
It is worthy of mention that three Plymouth men, Richard
Warren, George Bartlett and Charles L. Hayward, married
daughters of Dr. Wm. Pitt Greenwood. The occupation of
this building by John T. Hall and others, is too recent to re-
quire notice. John T. Hall, son of Eber and Elizabeth (Bur-
gess) Hall, was born in Plymouth and married in 1843 Betsey,
daughter of Joab Thomas, and at various times kept a barber
shop, a fancy goods store and engaged in insurance business.
The occupation of the site on which the store of George
Gooding stands with a tenement over it, possesses unusual in-
terest. About the year 1750 James Shurtleff built a house on
the site which in 1789 came into the possession of Caleb Leach,
who came to Plymouth from Bridgewater and projected the
Plymouth water works, the first water works built in the
United States. The company was chartered in 1796, the year
after a company was chartered in Wilkesbarre, Penn., but the
Plymouth works were constructed before the works of that
town. The pipes were yellow or swamp pine logs, ten to
twelve feet long, and ten inches in diameter, clear of sap, with

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 183

a bore from two to four inches in diameter, and sharpened at
one end, the other end bound with an iron hoop to prevent split-
ting when driven into the bore. During the latter years of the
company iron connections with a flange in the middle were
used.

In 1800 the house came into the possession of Asa Hall, who
came from Boston, and fitted up its lower room for a watch-
maker's shop. From that time to this, a period of one hundred
and six years the site has been identified with the watch mak-
ing business. In 1802 John Gooding, who came to Plymouth
from Taunton, succeeded Mr. Hall in the shop, and in 1805
married Deborah, daughter of Benjamin Barnes. In the next
year Mr. Barnes bought the house, and his son-in-law, Mr.
Gooding, continued to occupy it, finally receiving in 1836 a
deed of the property from Mr. Barnes. Not many years after
Mr. Gooding obtained possession, he took down the old house
and built the present one. I remember the old house well.
The shop door was divided across the middle, the lower part
wood, the upper part glass, and in suitable weather, the upper
part was swung back. The other doors which I remember like
this, were in the harness shop of Barnabas Otis on the south
side of Summer street, the second or third above Spring street,
the office of Dr. Amariah Preston, next north of the Gooding
house, in the old house where Davis building now stands, and
in the Solomon Churchill shop on the east side of Main street.
Mr. Gooding was the son of Joseph and Rebecca (Macomber)
Gooding of Taunton, and was born in 1780. His father was a
watchmaker, and he had at least one, and I think two brothers,
who followed the same trade. His brother Josiah and nephew
Josiah, kept within my recollection a watchmaker's and jewel-
ler's store in Joy's building on Washington street, in Boston,
many years. A member of one of the branches of Jos. Good-
ing's family, Mr. A. W. B. Gooding, married Mary Woodward
Barnes, a daughter of Bradford Barnes. Mr. Gooding was a
member of the Board of Selectmen from 1825 to 1831, inclus-
ive, a Director of the Plymouth Bank from 1839 to 1865, in-
clusive, and died September 25, 1870, at the age of ninety years.
He had seven children, Deborah Barnes, who married Aurin
Bugbee, John, 1808, who married Betsey H., daughter of Eph-
raim Morton, and became a well known master of the Bark

184 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

Yeoman, William, 1810, who married Lydia Ann, daughter of
Putnam Kimball, Benjamin Barnes, 1813, who married Har-
riet, daughter of Charles Goodwin, Eliza Ann, 1818, who mar-
ried Orin F. Alderman, George Barnes, who married
Eliza Merrill of Concord, N. H., and James Bug-
bee, 1823, who married first, 1851, Almira T., daughter of
Henry Morton of Plymouth, and second, Rhoda Ann White of
Worcester. Benjamin Barnes Gooding succeeded his father
in business in the same store, and died June 28, 1900, at the age
of 87. Two sons of Benjamin Barnes Gooding, Benjamin W.
and George, succeeded their father and continued until the
spring of 1905, when their partnership was dissolved, George
continuing in the business. Thus for 103 years, three genera-
tions of the Gooding family have carried on the business of
watch making on the same site, and as Earl W. Gooding, the
son of George, has become associated with his father, it may
with some degree of certainty be predicted that a fourth gen-
eration will continue the business. What I have said does not
tell the whole story. James Bugbee, the youngest son of John
Gooding, learned the watchmaker's trade, and established him-
self in Worcester, finally becoming connected with the Wal-
tham watch factory. His ingenuity and skill soon gave him a
leading position in that concern and improvements invented bya
him in watchmaking machinery for which numerous patents
were secured, enabled him to leave at his death a substantial
property for his widpw and son, who are still living. The up-
per part of the building in question is occupied by Dr. E. Ew
Fuller.

The next house is occupied by two stores and a tenement.
As long ago as I can remember, the small store now occupied
by Mr. Loring as a watchmaker's shop, was the office of Dr.
Amariah Preston, the father of Dr. Hervey N. Preston, pre-
viously mentioned. Dr. Preston was born February 5, 1758,
and entered the army in 1777. After the war he lived a short
time in Uxbridge, Mass., and Ashford, Conn., and then remov-
ed to Dighton, Mass., to learn a trade. In 1785 he began the
study of medicine, and in 1790 settled in Bedford, where he
married October 18, in that year, Hannah Read, and second,
May 15, 1796, Ruhamah Lane. After practising in Bedford
forty-three years, he removed in 1833 to Plymouth, and occu-

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 185

pied the office in question. He practised in Plymouth until
1845, eU>ht years after the death of his son, and in that year at
the age of 87 went to Billerica to live with another son, Mar-
shall Preston, and finally removed with him to Lexington,
where he died, October 29, 1853, at the age of ninety-five. I
remember well the kindly manner of the old gentleman when
I went frequently to his shop to buy gamboge to paint the pict-
ures in my geography.

After the departure of Dr. Preston from Plymouth in 1845,
his office was taken by Dr. Samuel Merritt, who has been al-
ready noticed in connection with the exodus to California in
1849. After the removal of Dr. Merritt to the Union Hall
building, after its erection in 1848, Dr. Ervin Webster succeed-
ed to the office and occupied it until his sad death, and that of
his son, Olin E. Webster by drowning in Billington Sea, Au-
gust 28, 1856. Since that time the office has been occupied
by Charles C. Doten, Ichabod Carver, Edward W. Atwood,
Benjamin H. Crandon, Sarah Morton Holmes, and B. D.
Loring, its present tenant.

The store on the north corner of the building was taken by
Bartlett Ellis, for the sale of fancy goods, and for a circulating
library, after he gave up his shoe store on the corner of Middle
street in 1831, and was occupied by him many years. His suc-
cessors in the store I think, have been a Mrs. Richards, and the
present occupant, Miss F. F. Simmons both in the millinery
business.

The tenement above the stores was occupied until 1831 by
John Churchill, and after his death, George Churchill, his son,
sold the building to Thomas Burgess Bartlett, who occupied it
until his recent death. Thomas Burgess Bartlett married Be-
thiah, a daughter of John Churchill, while Bartlett Ellis, the oc-
cupant of the store, married in 1821 for his second wife, Han-
nah, another daughter of Mr. Churchill.

During my boyhood the house which stood on the site of the
Plymouth Savings Bank, was occupied by two brothers, Thom-
as and William Jackson, substantial merchants for many years,
Thomas occupying the southerly part, and William, the north-
erly. Thomas, called Thomas, Jr., born in 1757, was the son
of Thomas and Sarah (Taylor) Jackson, and married in 1788
Sally May. They had three children, Thomas, Edwin and

l86 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

Sarah, but I have no recollection of any child in their family.
He was one of the founders of the Plymouth Bank in 1803, and
a subscriber for thirty shares of stock, and was a director from
1826 until his death, August 8, 1837. William Jackson, known
as Major Jackson from his rank in the militia, was born in
1763, and married in 1788, Anna, daughter of David Barnes of
Scituate, and had Francis Leonard in 1789, who married Sam-
uel Maynard, Leavitt Taylor, 1790, and David Barnes, 1794-
He married second in 1795, Mercy, daughter of John
and Mercy (Foster) Russell, and had Frederick William,
1798, Anna, 1799, and William R., 1801. He married third
in 1804, widow Esther (Phillips) Parsons. Mr. Jackson was
one of the founders of the Plymouth Bank, a subscriber for
twenty-seven shares of stock, and a director from 1803 to 181 5,
and again from 1827 to 1836. He died in Plymouth, October
22, 1836.

There was a vacant lot belonging to the Messrs. Jackson
with two cellars, the remains of houses taken down long before
my remembrance, and in the Jackson yard there was a Jackson
apple tree, from which in season apples would fall upon a shed
and roll into the vacant lot, and in recess there was a race to
capture such apples as might have fallen during school hours.
What has been the fate of the Jackson apple trees of my youth,
and where have they gone? It was a red, juicy, early summer
apple, a fit prize for the race, and where have the queen apple
trees gone, only one of which is left in Plymouth. That in the
yard of Wm. Rider Drew was cut down during the last year,
leaving the one in the yard of Mrs. Lothrop, solitary and
alone. And where are the June Eatings, a name corrupted in-
to Jenitons, of which I think there is only one left in the yard
of Miss Lydia Jackson in North street. And I must not for-
get those favorites with the boys, the button pears. Not espec-
ially prized by their owners we boys were permitted to take all
we could find on the ground. With our trouser's pockets
bulging with the little fellows, we would find our way to school,
little suspecting that we were paying dearly for them in the
cost of a doctor's visit, and a dose of picra.

In the vacant lot above mentioned, the most conspicuous feat-
ure was a large sty in which Major Jackson kept his hogs. So
far from such appurtenance being considered a nuisance in

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. l8jf

those days, a family without one or more hogs was an excep-
tion. In earlier times they were permitted to run at large,
though not within my day in Plymouth, but it may surprise
my younger readers to know that in New York and Washing-
ton, as late as the civil war, they roved about the streets as
freely as dogs. As late as 1721 it was voted by the inhabitants
of Plymouth that they might run at large that year if properly
ringed and yoked, and hog constables were annually chosen to
see that the condition was complied with. The custom of
keeping hogs was so universal in my day that perhaps a dozen
times during the season a dealer would buy in the Brighton
market a drove of hogs and drive them home over the road,
selling them on the way. When a sale was made the drivers
would tie the four legs of the hog and raise it to a pair of steel-
yards, hanging from a bar supported by their shoulders, and
thus find the weight. While this operation was going on the
drove would roam at their own sweet will, nosing up the gut-
ters and sidewalks in every direction. I remember James Rug-
gles of Rochester, the donor to the county of the fountain in
front of the Court house, and Swift, one of the members
of the firm of pork packers in Chicago; driving their hogs
from house to house. Until a very recent date, more in
deference to an old custom, than to any necessity, hog-reeves
were chosen each year by the town, and recently married
grooms were selected for the honor.

The occupants of the house in question after the Jacksons
were, Madam Mary Warren and Wm. F. Peterson, in the
southerly part, and Susan, Sarah and Deborah L. Turner,
daughters of Lothrop Turner, and Miss Deborah L.
Turner, Dr. Alexander Jackson, and Hannah D. Washburn,
milliners, and Sarah M. Holmes and Mrs. Charles Camp-
bell, in the northerly part, until the house was taken down,
and the present building was erected in 1887, the occupants of
which are now the Old Colony National Bank, Plymouth Sav-
ing's Bank, the Black & White Club, Dr. Schubert and Dr.
Lothrop, and the Natural History Society. After the Jack-
son house came into the posession of the Savings Bank, a one
story building was erected on the northerly line of
the lot, which was occupied at various times by the Public
Library, and by Arthur Lord and Albert Mason, attorneys-

l88 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

at-law, and finally removed to the Hathaway land on Middle
street.

Before speaking of the occupants of the two houses which
stood north of the vacant lot on which the Bank building
was erected in 1842, I will state that in 185 1 a slice fifteen or
twenty feet deep was cut from the two lots, including the
front yard of the Thomas house, now the Plymouth Tavern,
and enough from the lot south of it to make the present line
to which Davis building when soon after erected, was made
to conform. As long ago as I can remember, the old house
which stood on the site of Davis building was occupied by
Timothy Goodwin, a tinman by trade, who occupied for his
tinshop the upper story of a projection in the rear of the
main building. I have an impression that he was club footed,^
and that he had two sons older than myself, who with their
father must have moved from Plymouth not far from the
year, 1835.

The old fashioned tinman's trade which flourished in Mr.
Goodwin's day when all the tinware in use was made in the
local shops, has practically disappeared, leaving only the man-
ufacture of hot air furnace pipes to remind us of the resonant
clatter of a tinshop once so familiar to the ear. Mr. Good-
win was born in 1779, and was the son of Timothy Goodwin,
who came from Charlestown and married Lucy, daughter of
Abiel Shurtleff of Plymouth. His father, who was associa-
ted with the earliest postal system of Plymouth, deserves a
passing notice. Up to 1775 no post office had ever been es-
tablished in Plymouth, and at that time there were only
seventy- five post offices in the colonies, and eighteen hundred
and seventy-five miles of post routes. In the above year Ben-
jamin Franklin was appointed Postmaster General, and on the
1 2th of May William Watson was appointed postmaster of
Plymouth, and in 1790 was commissioned by Washington.
On the appointment of Mr. Watson in 1775, a horseback mail
route was established from Cambridge to Falmouth, through
Plymouth, and Timothy Goodwin and Joseph Howland were
appointed post riders, making the trip down and back once in
each week. They left Cambridge Monday noon, and arrived
at Plymouth at four o'clock, Tuesday afternoon; and leaving
Plymouth at nine o'clock Wednesday morning, reached Sand-

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 1 89

wich at four o'clock on that day, and Falmouth at eight o'clock
Thursday morning. Goodwin and Howland divided the
route, making the exchange at Plymouth.

Until 1816 the rate of postage remained unchanged as fol-
lows : for a single letter under forty miles, eight cents ; under
ninety miles, ten cents; under one hundred and fifty miles,
twelve and a half cents ; under three hundred miles, seventeen
cents; under five hundred miles, twenty cents; over five hun-
dred miles, twenty-five cents. In 1816 the rate was fixed for
a single letter not over thirty miles, six and a quarter cents,
over thirty miles and under eighty, ten cents; over eighty
and under one hundred and fifty, twelve and a half cents;
over one hundred and fifty, and under four hundred, eighteen
and three quarters cents; over four hundred, twenty-five
cents, with an added rate for every additional piece of paper,
and if the letter weighed an ounce, the rate was four times
the above. The newspaper rate fixed at the same time was
one cent under one hundred miles, or within the state; over
one hundred miles, and out of the state, one and a half cents,
magazines and pamphlets one and a half cent a sheet under
one hundred miles, if periodicals, two and a half cents a sheet
over one hundred miles, but if not prepaid, four and five cents.

The above was the rate of the postage during my youth, and
until I was twenty-three years of age, when gradual reduc-
tions began to be made, the result of which has been the postal
rates as they stand today. The rates above mentioned indi-
cate the kind of currency prevailing at the time. Articles on
sale were priced at so many cents, or a four-pence happenny
(six and a quarter cents), nine pence (twelve and a half
cents,) a shilling (sixteen and two-thirds cents) a quarter of
a dollar, two and three pence (thirty-seven and a half cents)
a half a dollar, three and nine pence (or sixty-two and a half
cents) four and six pence (or seventy-five cents) and so on
to a dollar. Finally Mexican coins were eliminated from our
currency, and the genuine American decimal coinage exclu-
sively prevailed. Until the year 1855, prepayment was op-
tional, but with the introduction of postage stamps, prepay-
ment was required, and when after the establishment of ex-
presses, it was found that they engaged in the carriage of let-
ters the practice was forbidden unless the letters were stamp-

I90 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

ed. If under the old system letters were not prepaid, it was
by no means unusual for persons to whom they were address-
ed, to refuse to receive them and pay the high postage due.
It goes without saying that persons known to be going to
Boston or New York were pretty well loaded, as I have often
been with letters to be delivered not only to friends, but also to
men in business.

If cheap postage is a blessing, it may be doubted whether it
is an unalloyed one. As one of its penalties, letter writing
has become a lost art. A three-line note or a postal card, or
what is worse, a dictation by a stenographer from which the
last vestige of communion of friend with friend is completely
extinguished, has taken the place of the welcome epistles
which our grandmothers and aunts wrote with care, and filled
full not only with gossip and family news, but also with in-
structive comments on events of the day. How much future
readers will lose by the absence of such volumes of corre-
spondence as have graced our literature during the last hun-
dred years!

In connection with letters it may be well enough to say for
the benefit of my young readers that until 1840 envelopes were
unknown, and letters were universally folded and sealed eith-
er with sealing wax or wafers.

There was an expression of deliberation and composure in-
vesting such correspondence which is lost in the correspon-
dence of today. Now and then some impecunious person
found sealing wax and even wafers unnecessarily extravagant.
I was told many years ago by a man who called on the late
Joshua Sears who left his millions to a son, recently deceased,
that he found him splitting wafers. Since the days of envel-
opes I have known an officer of one of our institutions to save
all his letters, and turn the envelopes for future use.

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 191

CHAPTER XX.

William Watson, the first postmaster of Plymouth, was
the son of John and Priscilla (Thomas) Watson, and
was born in Plymouth, May 6, 1730, and graduated
at Harvard in 1751. In addition to the office of post-
master, he was appointed in 1782 naval officer for the port of
Plymouth, and in 1789 he was commissioned collector by
Washington. In 1803 he was removed by Jefferson from
both the office of postmaster and collector, and died April 22,
181 5. In 1765 he bought the lot of land in Court street, on
which the Old Colony Club house stands, and there can be no
doubt that he built the house now standing, and occupied it
until his death. After the death of Mr. Watson, the estate
was bought by my grandfather, William Davis, and occupied
by my uncle, Nathaniel Morton Davis from the time of his
marriage in 1817 until his death, when its occupancy passed
to his son, Col. Wm. Davis.

The story of the life of the mother of Wm. Watson is full
of romantic interest. She was Priscilla Thomas, a daughter
of Caleb and Priscilla (Capen) Thomas of Marshfield. She
became engaged to Noah Hobart, a divinity student, who was
at the time teaching scnool in Duxbury. John Watson of
Plymouth, who had married in 1715, Sarah, daughter of Dan-
iel .Rogers of Ipswich, lost his wife, and not knowing of the
engagement of Miss Thomas, made through her father, an of-
fer of marriage. As Mr. Watson was a man of high stand-
ing and abundant means, Mr. Thomas was favorably im-
pressed by the offer, and said that he would consult his wife
and daughter. A family council was held, into which Mr.
Hobart was called, and it was finally decided with the assent
of Mr. Hobart, who was ready to make any sacrifice to secure
a happy establishment for life for one whom he sincerely loved,
to accept Mr. Watson's offer. Thus with a tearful parting
two loving hearts were separated apparently forever. In
1729 John Watson and Priscilla Thomas were married, and
the first act of a new romance of John and Priscilla was per-

I92 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

formed. In 1732 Mr. Watson died, and at that time his son,
Elkanah, was a nursing infant. At about the same time
the wife of Isaac Lothrop died, leaving also a nursing infant.
As the families were intimate, Mrs. Watson offered to nurse
Mrs. Lothrop's infant with her own. The natural conse-
quence of the family relations was an offer of marriage from
Mr. Lothrop, which was unhesitatingly accepted. The al-
liance was an eligible one. Mr. Lothrop was one of the Jus-
tices of the Court, and was possessed of a large estate. The
marriage took place in 1733, and he died April 26, 1750, hav-
ing by a life illustrating the highest qualities of the human
character deserved the following inscription on his grave-
stone:

"Had virtue's charms the power to save
Its faithful votaries from the grave,
This stone had ne'er possessed the fame
Of being marked with Lothrop's name."

In the meantime it may be interesting to learn what had
become of Noah Hobart, the old time lover. He in due time
entered the ministry, and was settled over the church in Fair-
field, Conn. Though he had never held communication with
Priscilla by letter or otherwise, by the wireless ways which
lovers have, he had kept himself informed of the varied
scenes in her life. He knew of the death of her first husband,
and her second marriage, as well as the two families of chil-
dren which had grown up around her. He had heard also of
the death of her second husband, while with a wife and two
children of his own, a veil not wholly impenetrable obscured
the remembrance of his early days. About seven years after
the death of Mr. Lothrop her second husband, the wife of
Mr. Hobart died, and after a becoming period of mourning,
his old love, which time had not obliterated, speedily revived
at the thought that both he and his early love were free.
Without delay he, as was the fashion of the time, drove in
his chaise to Plymouth, and presented himself as suitor at
the Lothrop mansion. It is unnecessary to disclose the inter-
view. A further sacrifice was needed before in the fullness
of time God should join together whom man had put asunder.
She had promised her husband on his death bed that as long
as his mother lived, then eighty years of age, she would like
a real daughter care for her and promote her happiness.

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. I93

Again there was a parting which seemed to be one forever.
On his way home Mr. Hobart stopped over night with his
friend, Rev. Mr. Shute of Hingham, and attended with him
the next day a religious service in the church held every
Thursday, which was sometimes called the Thursday lecture,
and sometimes the Preparatory lecture. On their way home
from church a friend passed them on horseback, who said that
he had ridden from Plymouth. In answer to the inquiry for
news in the old town he said that just as he left he was told
that old Mrs. Lothrop was found dead in her bed that morn-
ing. It is needless to say that the continuance of the journey
to Fairfield was postponed, and a return to Plymouth was
made. After the funeral and a due publication of the bans,
the marriage took place under date of 1758, and the seven-
teen years which she passed in Fairfield with her third hus-
band, were the happiest years of Her life. Mr. Hobart died
in 1775, and she returned to Plymouth, where the remainder
of her days was spent until her death, June 23, 1796, in the
90th year of her age.

John Sloss Hobart, son of Rev. Noah Hobart, by his first
wife, became United States Senator from New York, and his
daughter, Ellen, married Nathaniel Lothrop, a son of Mrs.
Hobart by her second husband, Isaac Lothrop.

Returning to the old house where Davis building stands,
of which in my wanderings I have almost lost sight, its later
occupants whom I can remember were Capt. Woodward, the
driver for many years of the Boston mail stage, his son-in-
law Bradford Barnes, John R. Davis and George Churchill.
All of these except Mr. Davis have been noticed in other
chapters. Mr. Davis was a ropemakef by trade, but when the
Robbins Cordage Company discontinued work he souglit
other means of livelihood, chiefly that of restaurant keeper.
He was a good man, of a deeply religious spirit, who carried
his religion into every day life. He not only believed in the
fatherhood of God, but also in the brotherhood of man. It
would have been impossible to provoke him to the utterance
of an angry or unkind word, and his kindly words often ap-
peared more kind with the touch of humor in which they
were uttered. His kindness of heart and gentleness of speech,
and his humor as well, were illustrated when a man after

194 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

eating at his lunch counter left without paying. Instead of
running out to the sidewalk and calling out to the man in the
hearing of passers-by "to come back and pay his bill/' he
said in the mildest tone of voice, "Mr., did I give you the
right change?"

The house now occupied as a public house, and called the
Plymouth Tavern, was for many years identified with the
family of Joshua Thomas. He bought the house in 1786, and
occupied it until his death, January 10, 1821. He married in
1786 Isabella Stevenson, of Boston, who continued to occupy
it until her death. Few families displayed more earnest pa-
triotism than the family to which he belonged. His father,
Dr. William Thomas, born in Boston in 1718, practised medi-
cine in Plymouth many years, and died September 20, 1802.
He was on the medical staff in the expedition against Louis-
burg in 1745, and at Crown Point in 1758. He had four sons
born in Plymouth, Joshua, Joseph, Nathaniel and John.
Joshua was born in 175 1, and graduated at Harvard in 1772.
After some time spent in teaching, and in theological studies,
he became especially interested in public affairs, and in 1774
was adjutant of a regiment of militia organized in Plymouth
County, in view of the threatening war clouds appearing
above the horizon. In 1776 he served on the staff of General
John Thomas on the Canadian expedition, in which General
Thomas died, and soon after returned home where he studied
law, and henceforth devoted himself to his profession. Hav-
ing served as a member of the committee of correspondence
and as Representative and Senator, he was appointed in 1792
Judge of Probate, and continued in office until his death. He
was also President of the Plymouth and Norfolk counties
Bible Society, the first president of the Pilgrim Society,
and Moderator of town meetings twenty-eight years.
He lay on his bed of death during the celebration of Decem-
ber 22, 1820, when Daniel Webster delivered the oration, and
John Watson was selected to preside on that occasion. Judge
Thomas had three sons, John Boies, 1787, William, 1788, and
Joshua Barker,' 1797. John Boies graduated at Harvard in
1806, and married Mary, daughter of Isaac LeBaron. He
was a member of the bar, a member of the Board of Select-
men, from 183 1 to 1840, inclusive, moderator of town meet-

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. I95

ings from 1829 to 1841, inclusive, President of the Old Col-
ony Bank and Clerk of the Plymouth County Courts from
181 1 to his death, December 2, 1852. William Thomas, the
second son of Joshua, graduated at Harvard in 1807, and was
at the time of his death, September 20, 1882, the oldest living
graduate. He practiced law in Plymouth, was in 1852 sheriff
of the county, and married in 1816 Sally W., daughter of
John Sever of Kingston. Joshua Barker, the youngest son of
Joshua, was also a member of the bar, but never practised.
Though not fitted by temperament for the labors of his pro-
fession, he was a man of culture, and a conversationalist,
whom it was always agreeable to meet. Much younger than
his brothers, he was always an indulged and petted son. I
heard when I was young of an amusing effort to send him
to a boarding school. His father and mother, with great re-
luctance, and only from a sense of duty, decided to send him
to a school known as the Wing school in Sandwich. So they
started one morning with their boy in a chaise, and a trunk
strapped to the axle. After leaving him in the hands of Mr.
Wing they regretfully bade him goodbye and left for home.
They drove into their yard, landing at the rear door, and
going into the house, found Joshua sitting by the fire, having
ridden home on the axle and entered the house at the front
door before them. They were overjoyed to see him, and
embraced him with as much fervor as if he had returned
from a long term at school. He died in Plymouth unmar-
ried, March 7, 1873.

After the death of the widow of Judge Thomas, the house
was occupied for some years by Allen and S. D. Ballard as
an eating saloon, with lodging rooms to let. The Ballards
were succeeded by Mr. Holbrook, and under the name of the
Central House it was occupied by Charles H. Snell. Mr.
Huntoon and Mr. Mclntire and St. George and Manley E.
Dodge followed, who were succeeded by Mr. Shaw, Mr.
Minchen, and Bruce and Abbot Jones followed, and then
Jones alone, who was succeeded by McCarthy and Buckman,
and the recent proprietor, Mr. McCarthy. The name was
changed to Plymouth Tavern by Mr. Bruce. Joseph Thomas,
a brother of Judge Joshua Thomas, born in 1755, was in the
early part of the revolution a Lieutenant of Artillery, and later,

I96 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

Captain and Major. He died in Plymouth unmarried, Aug*.
19, 1838. Nathaniel, another brother, born in 1756, was a Cap-
tain in the revolution, and died in Plymouth, March 22, 1838.
He married in 1781 Priscilla Shaw, and second in 1796, Jane
(Downs) widow of Isaac Jackson. John, a third brother ot
Judge Joshua Thomas, born in 1758, was on the medical
staff during the revolution, and after the war settled in
Poughkeepsie. Some of his descendants are living in Cleve-
land, Ohio.

As long ago as I can remember the house next to the store
of Moore Bros., on the north was occupied by Benjamin
Marston Watson, and was built by him on a vacant lot in
181 1. He was a son of John and Lucia (Marston) Watson,
born in 1774, and married in 1804 Lucretia Burr, daughter of
Jonathan Sturges of Fairfield, Conn. His only children re-
membered by me were Lucretia Ann, who married Rev.
Hersey B. Goodwin, and was the mother of Professor Wil-
liam Watson Goodwin of Cambridge ; and Benjamin Marston.
His son, Benjamin Marston Watson, born January 17, 1820,
graduated at Harvard in 1839, and married in 1846, Mary,
daughter of Thomas Russell, and died February 19, 1896.
He was a lovable man, whose companionship I prized ; a man
of culture, who enjoyed the friendship of Emerson and Al-
cott and Thoreau; a man in whose presence ordinary ambi-
tions appeared insignificant and mean ; a lover of nature with
its fruits and flowers, who received in return from nature's
hand congenial occupation and support.

Mr. Watson, senior, was a merchant in Plymouth, Presi-
dent of the Plymouth Aqueduct Company, one of the found-
ers of the Pilgrim Society, and for many years its recording
secretary. He was also chosen treasurer of the Plymouth
institution for savings at the time of its organization in 1828,
but declined a re-election in 1829. As a boy I remember him
well looking over into the trench of the aqueduct and clean-
ing perch at a South Pond picnic and putting wood on the
parlor fire, in doing which he had a way inherited by his son
of standing with his limbs straight from feet to hips, and his
body at a sharp angle straight from hips to head without a
lounge or a bend. He died while on a visit to Fairfield, Nov-
ember 10, 1835. In 1845 his widow sold the house to Wil-

OF AN OCTOGENAiUAN. 197

liam Thomas, who has been already noticed, and it is now
owned and occupied by his grandchildren, children of Wil-
liam H. Whitman, who married his daughter Ann.

Captain William Bartlett, whose widow occupies the next
house, has been already noticed in connection with the loss
of the bark, Charles Bartlett, of which he was master. The
house has, however, other interesting associations. In the
middle of the eighteenth century it was owned and occupied
by Ansel Lothrop. Mary Lothrop, daughter of Ansel, had a
son born in the house, who received the name of his father,
Elkanah Cushman, and was brought up and educated by him.
The son was at one time engaged in business as a member of
the Boston firm of Cushman & Topliffe, and lived in various
places in Charlestown, and in the north end of Boston.
Among his places of residence was a wooden house on Rich-
mond street, now called Parmenter street, between Hanover
and Salem streets, and there Charlotte Cushman, his daughter,
was born, July 23, 1816. It is a little singular that John Gibbs
Gilbert, the distinguished actor, should have been born six
years before in an adjacent house. Mr. Cushman attended
with his family the Second Church on Hanover street, be-
tween Richmond and North Bennet streets, of which Henry
Ware, Jr., Ralph Waldo Emerson and Chandler Robbins
were pastors before new places of worship were found in Bed-
ford street, and finally in Copley Square. The site of the
Cushman house is now occupied by a school house erected in
1866, and named after the distinguished actress, the "Cush-
man School." Miss Cushman early displayed creditable vocal
talent, and was one of the choir in the Second Church. On
Thursday evening, March 25, 1830, she appeared at a concert
given at No. 1 Franklin avenue, by Mr. G. Farmer, her music
teacher, when she sung, "Take this Rose," "Oh, merry row
the bonny bark just parting from the shore," and "Farewell,
my love." Until 1835 she continued to sing in church, and
in April of that year, while J. G. Maeder and his wife, who
was Clara Fisher, were producing English opera at the Tre-
mont Theatre, the contralto fell ill, and Miss Cushman was
selected to sing the Countess Almaviva in Mozart's "Mar-
riage of Figaro" in her place. The next part she sang under
the Maeders was Lucy Bertram in "Guy Mannering," and

I9& PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

thus she was early brought into association with the dramati-
zation, in which she became famous. Being shortly after-
wards engaged to sing in English operas in New Orleans,
she made a sea voyage to that city, during which, as I have
always heard, she lost her voice in consequence of the change
of climate. Rev. J. Henry Wiggin, whose family were ac-
quainted with the Cushmans at the Northend, and to whom
1 am indebted for many of the facts in this notice, attributes
the loss of voice to the overstraining to which she subjected
it after her arrival in New Orleans. Further effort as a singer
was of course hopeless, and returning to New York she
served three years as a stock actor in the old Park Theatre,
under Manager Simpson. It is unnecessary to follow her dis-
tinguished career further than to speak of one passage in it,
which came under my direct notice. During the winter of
1843 and 1844, which I spent in Philadelphia, she was the
lessee and manager of the Chestnut Street Theatre, where I
saw her repeatedly in Macbeth, Julia in the Hunchback, Ju-
liana in the Honeymoon, Queen Katherine, Meg Merrilies,
Oberon, Bianca in Milman's Fazio; Lady Gay Sparker, Shy-
lock and Beatrice. In 1847 I saw her at the Haymarket
Theatre in London, and I remember how my patriotism was
stirred by the rapturous applause her acting elicited. During
the Philadelphia winter, to which I have alluded, Miss Cush-
man, with her father and a brother, whom she was educating
at the Pennsylvania Medical School, was a regular attendant
morning and evening, at the Unitarian Church, of which Rev.
Dr. Furness was pastor.

Miss Cushman had a younger sister, Susan, whose beauty
presented a marked contrast to her own masculine plainness.
In early life Susan married at the Northend a tailor by the
name of Merriman, after whose death Charlotte introduced
her to the stage, and as Romeo to Susan's Juliet, played
Romeo and Juliet in London one hundred nights. On the
9th of March, 1848, Susan married in Liverpool Dr. James
S. Muspratt, Professor of Chemistry, in that city, and died
there May 10, 1859. Charlotte Cushman died in Boston, Feb-
ruary 18, 1876, and was buried from King's Chapel on Wash-
ington's birthday.

Until 1858 a dwelling house stood on the south corner of

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 199

Court square, which in that year was removed for the pur-
pose of widening the square. All through my youth that
house was owned and occupied by Captain Joseph Bartlett.
He bought the house in 1800, of Nathaniel Thomas, having
up to that time, after his marriage, lived in Wellingsley on an
estate which had previously belonged to his father-in-law,
Joseph Churchill. Captain Bartlett, through life, kept up the
Churchill farm, the entrance to which was through a gate at
Jabez Corner. Warren avenue, when it was laid out, followed
the cartway, which led through his farm. More than once
Captain Bartlett took me in his chaise over to his farm at
Poverty Point, as it was called, and I have a vivid recollec-
tion of the apples with which I filled my pockets, and the
sweet corn which the old gentleman gave me to carry home
to my mother. His chaise was one with an iron axle, and
its loud rattle in his comings and goings always indicated
his latitude and longitude. For many years he was an enter-
prising and successful ship owner and merchant, and in 1803
bought the lot on the north corner of Court square, and built
and occupied the brick house now occupied by William Hedge.
His losses were so severe during the embargoes and the war
of 1812, that in 1820 he moved back to his old home, and con-
tinued to occupy it until his death. He was a son of Samuel
and Betsey (Moore) Bartlett, and was born June 16, 1762,
and married in 1784, Rebecca Churchill, and had William,
1786, Rebecca, Susan, 1795, Joseph, Augustus, John, Samuel,
Benjamin and Eliza Ann. He married second in 1821, Lucy,
daughter of Charles Dyer, and died March 4, 1835. His
son, William Bartlett, married in 1814, Susan, daughter of
Dr. James Thatcher, and had Susan Louisa, 181 5, who mar-
ried Charles O. Boutelle, Elizabeth Thatcher, 1818, John,
1820, and Eliza Ann, 1825.

John Bartlett, son of William and Susan (Thatcher) Bart-
lett, became distinguished in both commercial and literary
life, and deserves a special notice. He was born in Plym-
outh, June 14, 1820. When his grandfather, Joseph Bartlett,
removed in 1820 to his old home, his son, William, the father
of John, who had been occupying his father's house since his
marriage in 1814, moved into the brick house and kept it as
a public house under the name of the Old Colony Hotel. Ex-

200 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

actly how long William Bartlett kept the house I have no
means of knowing, but he was succeeded in a year or two,
by William Spooner, who was in turn succeeded by Ezra
Cushing until 1827, when the house was bought by Nathaniel
Russell, and became his residence. I have a letter f rom Judge
John Davis of Boston, dated September 23, 1820, to my
grandfather, William Davis, disclosing a plan, proposed by
William Sturgis and others, friends of the Pilgrim Society,
in Boston, to purchase the house for a memorial edifice, dedi-
cated to the Pilgrims. The plan was to have it kept as a
hotel, where meetings of the society might be held, and din-
ners and balls provided for on anniversary days. Judge
Davis was opposed to the scheme, and finally a committee of
Boston gentlemen was appointed to aid the trustees of the
society in erecting such a memorial as might be agreeable to
them. The gentlemen appointed as the committee were Lem-
uel Shaw, Francis C. Gray, Harrison Gray Otis, Isaac P.
Davis, James Savage, George Bond, Benjamin Rich, Francis
Bassett, John T. Winthrop and Nathan Hale.

Returning now to John Bartlett, who was born June 14,
1820, the year in which at an unknown date his father moved
into the brick house, it is impossible to determine in which
house he was born. He was educated in the public schools
of Plymouth, and was my schoolmate and playmate. In tfie
autumn of 1836 he entered the bookbinding establishment
connected with the University Bookstore in Cambridge, of
which John Owen was the proprietor. In the next year, 1837,
he became a clerk in the bookstore, and at once displayed re-
markable aptitude for the business. He was an extensive
reader, and possessed a wide knowledge of authors, and was
soon recognized as an expert in the preparation of books for
the press. In August, 1846, Mr. Owen failed, and he con-
tinued as clerk with his successor, George Nichols, until 1849,
when he bought out Mr. Nichols. In 1859 he sold out his
store to Sever & Francis, having published a number of
books for various authors. He had also published three edi-
tions of his "Familiar Quotations," the first of which was is-
sued in 1856. In 1861 he prepared a few books for publica-
tion, but transferred them to Sever & Francis. In 1862 he
served as volunteer paymaster nine months on board Admiral

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 201

Du Pont's despatch boat. In August, 1863, he entered the
publishing house of Little, Brown & Co., as clerk, with the
promise that at the expiration of eighteen months, when the
existing partnership would terminate, he would be taken into
the firm. In 1864 Little, Brown & Co. published the fourth
edition of his "Familiar Quotations," and an edition de luxe
of "Walton's Angler," edited by him.- In February, 1865,
he became a partner in the firm, and the literary, manufac-
turing and advertising departments were assigned to him,
all of which he retained during his connection with the firm.
In 1882 Little, Brown & Co. published his Shakespeare
"Phrase Book," and in February, 1889, having been several
years senior partner, he retired from the firm in order to
complete his "Shakespeare Concordance." The fifth and sixth
editions of "Quotations" were published by Little, Brown &
Co., the seventh and eighth by Routledge of London, and
the ninth by Little, Brown & Co., and Macmillan & Co. of
London, and of all these editions, more than two hundred
thousand copies, have been sold.

In 1891 Macmillan & Co., of London, offered to publish his
"Shakespeare Concordance" at their own risk, and it was is-
sued by them in 1894. In recognition of his literary service,
he was made in 1892 a member of the American Academy of
Arts and Sciences ; in 1871 was awarded by Harvard an hon-
orary degree of Master of Arts, and in 1894, he was made an
honorary member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society. He mar-
ried, June 4, 1851, Hannah, daughter of Sydney Willard,
Professor of Hebrew at Harvard from 1805 to 1831, and
granddaughter of Joseph Willard, President of Harvard
from 1781 to 1804, and died in Cambridge, December 3,

1905.

I have spoken of the occupants of the brick house on the
north corner of Court Square, before 1827, when it came into
the possession of Nathaniel Russell, who occupied it from
that time until his death, October 21, 1852. He was the son
of John and Mercy (Foster) Russell, and was born April 6,
1769, in the house on the west side of Main street next north
of Mr. Gooding's watchmaker's store, where his father lived
from 1759 to I276. After reaching manhood he was engaged
for a time in business in Bridgewater, removing to Plymouth

202 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

not long after the year 1800, and occupying the house which
until recently stood on the lower corner of Middle street and
LeBaron's alley. About 1808 he removed to the house on the
north side of Summer street next to the house on the
corner of Ring Lane, and made that his home until he bought
the house on the corner of Court Square. He was extensive-
ly engaged many years in iron manufactures in connection
with William Davis and Barnabas Hedge, and after 1837, as
the head of the firm of N. Russell & Co. He was a man who
always had at heart the welfare of his native town, and joined
in every movement to elevate its social and moral condition.
A Lyceum in 1829, of which he was President ; a Temperance
Society at about the same date, with which he was connected ;
a Peace Society in 1831, and affairs of the church, of which
he was a member, always commanded his aid and support.
He married, June 18, 1800, Martha, daughter of Isaac Le-
Baron, and had Nathaniel, Mary Howland, Andrew Leach,
Mercy Ann, Francis James, LeBaron and Lucia Jane. He
was always known in my day as Captain Nathaniel Russell,
having been commissioned by Governor Samuel Adams, May
25» I795> Captain in the Fourth Regiment, first brigade and
fifth division of the State Militia. Nathaniel Russell, Jr.,
born in Bridgewater, December 18, 1801, graduated at Har-
vard in 1820, and became associated with his father in busi-
ness. He married, June 25, 1827, Catherine Elizabeth,
daughter of Daniel Robert and Betsey Hayward (Thacher)
Elliott of Savannah, Georgia, and died February 16, 1875.
He will be further mentioned later.

Mary Howland Russell, born October 22, 1803, died Janu-
ary 12, 1862.

Andrew L. Russell, born May 16, 1806, graduated at Har-
vard in 1827, and was engaged at one time in the dry goods'
jobbing business in Central street, Boston, in partnership with
William S. Russell, and later with N. Russell & Co. in Plym-
outh. He married, May 3, 1832, Laura Dewey, and, second,
October 5, 1841, Hannah White, daughter of William Davis,
Jr. He has been already noticed in connection with the rows
of elms planted by him on Court street, which if not consign-
ed to death by the concrete sidewalks, will serve as a lasting
memorial of his service to his native town.

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 203

Mercy Ann, born August 16, 1809, died September 18,
1832.

Francis James graduated at Harvard in 1831, and died
September 6, 1833.

LeBaron graduated at Harvard in 1832, and died August
19, 1889.

Lucia Jane, born November 22, 1821, married Rev. Dr.
George W. Briggs, November 5, 1849, an^ died November
1, 1881.

LeBaron Russell, above mentioned, studied medicine in
Boston and Paris, and established himself in Boston. Indis-
posed to active labor in his profession, he devoted himself to
literary pursuits, and by his interest in the schools and chari-
ties of the city, led a useful and beneficent life.

The house itself, so long identified with the Russell family,
deserves special notice. It is a fine example of the style of
domestic architecture which had its origin in the middle of
the eighteenth century. It has been suggested by some that
it was designed by Charles Bulfinch, but I lived from 1849 *°
1853 in a block of houses on Franklin street in Boston, de-
signed by him, and I remember nothing in their exterior or
interior to suggest his handiwork. I am inclined to think
that it was modelled after the designs of Peter Harrison,
an English architect, examples of whose work may be found
in Salem, which were followed more or less closely in later
times in that city^ and in Marblehead and Portsmouth. Har-
rison came to Newport, Ri I., in 1829, in the ship with Bishop
Berkley and Smibert, the distinguished portrait painter, and
before his death, which occurred in Boston, designed the Red-
wood library in Newport, King's chapel in Boston, and
Christ's church in Cambridge. Symmetry and proportion
were the characteristics of his work, and no better illustration
of these exquisite qualities can be found than in his original
efforts and their faithful copies. The beautiful old porch of
the house in question, rounded in shape and supported by
clover leaf columns, harmonizing with the windows beneath
and above it, was replaced by the present one about 1840.

204 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

CHAPTER XXL

To break the monotony of personal reminiscence, I shall
recall some of the games which prevailed in my
youth. When the April showers and the dog days come
year after year at their appointed times, we are satisfied with
the explanation that they are following the order of nature.
When in their seasons the robins build their nests, and the
blackbirds gather in flocks preparatory to their autumn flight,
we are content with the statement that they are guided by in-
stinct. But we have no answer to the question — why we boys,
as if in obedience to a mysterious edict issued by a secret
council, each year simultaneously in all our towns brought
from their winter quarters our alleys and taws, and snapped
our marbles on every available sidewalk. After the marble
fever had run, like measles, a certain number of days, the
scene suddenly changed, and driving hoop was the order of
the day. The hoop was not one of those toy hoops we see in
these days, galvanized iron rings, with an attachment to push
them with, but the genuine hoop from an oil cask, one from
the bilge for the larger boys, and one from the chine for the
smaller ones. When we gathered at twilight, and either in
single or double file, made the circuit of the town, we made
the welkin ring literally to beat the band.

After the hoop came, as now, the ball games, skip, one old
cat, two old cat, hit or miss, and round ball. We made our
own balls, winding yarn over a core of India rubber, until the
right size was reached, and then working a loop stitch all
around it with good, hard, tightly spun twine. Attempts were
occasionally made to play ball in the streets, but the by-laws
of the town forbidding it were rigidly enforced. There were
four gangs of boys, the North street gang, which played in
the Jackson field in the rear of North street ; the Court street
gang, which played in Captain Joseph Bartlett's field, where
the easterly end of Russell street and the adjoining buildings
are; the Summer street gang, which played in Cow Hill Val-
ley, and the "tother side gang," which played on Training

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 205

Green, sometimes to the detriment of neighboring windows.
While the days were longest the street games were next in
order, hare and hounds, prison bar, leap frog, Tom Tiddler's
ground, Red Lion in his den, I spy, hide and seek, nine holes,
back side in the way, and follow the leader.

Over hill and dale,
Through bush, through briar,
Over park and dale,
Through flood, through fire.

Wherever the leader went we must follow, over fences,
off stone walls, in and out of houses, astonishing families,
and if the boot of the head of the family was in order, com-
ing out a little more expeditiously than we went in. The
members of the North street gang, to which I belonged, were
besides myself and brother, Augustus H. Tribble, the Col-
lingwood boys, John J. Russell, Richard W. Bagnall, Lewis
Weston, the Jackson boys, Thomas Cotton, Charles Cotton,
George Maynard, George Gooding and Charles T. May.

Football came next in the early autumn, with a ball made
of an ox bladder inserted in a leather case of our own making.
We bought the bladder at the slaughter house, and put it in
pickle until it was ready to be used, and then when the case
was made we put it through a slit, and blowing it up with a
quill tied a string around the nozzle, laced up the slit, and the
game began. In those days all the boys wore Soots, and con-
sequently little damage was done to our shins.

With the coming of the first cool nights we hunted in the
morning for strips of ice in the gutter, and spent the hour
before school in sliding, boys and girls together, the girls, I
never knew the reason why, giving a little hop at the begin-
ning of their slide. And then came our sliding down hill,
the larger boys with George P. Hayward and William Rider
Drew and Jesse Turner at their head. Mr. Hayward's Con-
stitution, painted green, and having round steel spring run-
ners, taking the lead, would slide from the top of Burial Hill
down through a wide open gate between the high school-
house and the Unitarian church, along Leyden street, down
Turner's hill to the end of Barnes' wharf. The smaller boys
would spend the afternoons of Saturday perfectly happy on
the short slide from the bottom of the Middle street steps to

206 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

Water street. All our sleds were made to order, scorning as
we would if they had been purchasable, the toy sleds which
can now be bought for a song, and are high at the price.
There was a sled of domestic manufacture in my day which,
considering its cheapness and simplicity, was a quite satisfac-
tory sled in the minds of those who could afford no better.
It was made of six white oak cask staves, three above and
three below, with the convex on the outside, and a cleat at
each end between the staves, to which it was nailed. With
a little less speed, perhaps, than other sleds, yet in humpy
dagger and belly hacker in wearing out boot toes, and heels,
they were as efficient as any. With skating and its accom-
paniment hocky, the winter passed away, and the year came
to an end. Of course many out of door games now in vogue
were not known in my early days. Cricket was little played,
while croquet, tennis, and golf had not made their appear-
ance. To these modern innovations doubtless before long
curling and lacrosse will be added. The game of ten pins
was a familiar one, but its enjoyment was limited by the
almost entire absence of alleys until the Samoset alleys were
built in 1845. There was a poor, short alley on Billington
Sea Island, but rarely used except on the occasion of picnics.
It was by no means an uncommon thing in the college vaca-
tion to go as far as Holmes' Tavern, near Harrub's corner,
and roll in the alleys of Mr. Holmes, whose lame back we
sorely tried by his efforts to act as ball boy, and sometimes
we went as far as an alley near the Cushman cotton factory,
beyond Plympton Green. Carriage hire in those days was
so low that such an afternoon expedition could be had without
extravagance. We could hire for a half a day at George
Drew's stable in Middle street, for a dollar, either Dolly or
Little Jack, or the Eastern mare, or the Peabody horse with a
chaise, or for a dollar and a half, Bob sorrel with a carryall.
I say chaise, a name derived through the English word chair,
from the French chaire, because buggies were unknown in
Plymouth in my youth. Buggies were introduced from India,
where in Hindustani they were called baggi or bagghi, four
wheeled carriages with hoods, and our wagon is derived from
the Dutch word wagen. Every family owning a horse had a
chaise, and carriage houses were universally called chaise

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 2QJ

houses, as they are still by myself, and older persons. The
fronts of these houses were always made with curved tops,
and I know of only three now left in town, those of Mrs.
Lothrop, Father Buckley and William Rider Drew. The
first buggy in Plymouth was brought from Boston by my
uncle, Nathaniel Morton Davis in the 1830*8, and was owned
by John Harlow of Chiltonville at the time of his death a few
years ago.

Of the indoor games of my youth, battledore and shuttle-
cock and the graces have gone out. The other games of the
young were as they are now, blind man's buff, scandal, crib-
bage, backgammon, commerce, whist, chess, checkers, vingt-
un, all fours, bragg, loo and euchre. The gambling game of
bridge was unknown, as it ought to be today. Quadrille was
played by older people, and Boston, after a disappearance
for many years, was again introduced in 1844. Piquet, the
ancient game of ombre adapted to four instead of three per-
sons, and played also by older persons, was immortalized by
Pope in the following lines:

Belinda when thirst of fame invites,

Burns to encounter two adventurous knights,

At ombre singly to decide their doom.

And swells her breast with conquests yet to come.

In the selection of leaders and sides in the out of door
games, what were called "countings out" were used, very
curious doggerels, whose origin is as mysterious as that of lan-
guage itself. They are used in every town in every state in
our Union, and have been found in more than twenty lan-
guages, including English, French, Spanish, German, Rus-
sian, Dutch, Gallic, Turkish, Hindustani, Japanese, Hawaiian,
Irish, Romani, Cornish, etc. There is a vein of similarity
running through them, though changes and additions and cor-
ruptions have been the result of their adoption into various
dialects. In closing this chapter I subjoin the following list
of such as my own memory, and that of others have furnished
me, and such as I have found in print.

Eena, mcena, mony my,

Tuscalona, bona sty,

Hulda, gulda, boo.

Out goes you. (United States.)

208 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

Eena, meena, mona my,
Tuscalona, bona stry,
Tin pan, maska dary,
Higly, pigly, pig snout,
Crinkly, cranky, you are out.

(New Hampshire.)

Eeny, meeny, mony my,

Barcelona, stony stry,

Eggs, butter, cheese, bread,

Stick, stock, stone dead. (England.)

Eeny, meeny, mony mo,

Catch a nigger by the toe,

If he squeals, let him go,

Eeny, meeny, miny mo. (Scotland.)

Eena, deina, dina doe,

Catch a nigger by the toe,

If he screams, let him go.

Eena, deena, dina doe. (Ireland.)

Ena, mena, bona mi,

Kisca, lana, mora di,

Eggs, butter, cheese, bread,

Stick, stock, stone dead. (Ancient.)

Allem, Bellem, Chirozi,

Chirmirozi, fotozi,

Fotoz girden, magara,

Magarada, tilki bush,

Pilki, beni korkoostdi,

Aallede, shovellede, edimeda,

Divid bushe,

Den Olayen, kehad bashi. (Turkey.)

Anery, twaery, duckery, seven,

Alama crack, ten am eleven,

Palm, pom, it must be done,

Come lettle, come total, come twenty-one. (Druids.)

One-ery, two-ery, ziccary zan,

Hollow bone, crockabone, ninery tan,

Spittery, spot it must be done,

Twiddle-urn, twaddle-um twenty-one. (England.)

Ekkeri, akaisi, you kaiman,
Fillisin, follasy, Nicholas Jan,
Kivi, Kavi, Irishman,
Stini, stani, buck. (Romani.)

Eena, meena, mona, mite,

Basca, lora, hora, bite. (Cornwall.)

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 209

Eena, tena, mona, mi.

Pastor, lone, boni strei. (German.)

Eena, meener, mulker,
Porceleiner, stutker. (Dutch.)

Hickory, hoary, hairy, Ann,

Busybody, oven span,

Pare, pare, virgin, mari. (Guernsey.)

One ery, two ery, Dickey Davy,

Hulleboo, cracker, gentle Mary,

Dixum Dandy, merrigo hind,

Fersumble-du, tumble-du, twenty-nine. (Ireland.)

Eena, deena, dina dust,

Calita, meena, wina, must,

Spin, spon, must be done,

Twiddledum, twaddledum, twenty-one.

O. U. T. speels out,

With the old dish clout,

Out boys, out (England.)

One is all, two is all, Zick is all zan,
Bobtail, vinegar, little tol tan,
Harum, scarum, Virginia merum,
Zee, tan, buck. (New Hampshire.)

One-ezzoll, two-ezzoll, ziggle, zol zan,
Bobtail vinegar, little tall tan,
Harum, scarum, virgin marum,
Zinctum, zanctum, buck. (Delaware.)

Intry, mintry, cutry, corn,

Apple seed, and briar thorn,

Wire briar, limber lock,

Three geese in a flock,

One flew east, and one flew west,

And one flew over the cuckoo's nest

Delia Domna, Nona dig,
Oats floats, country notes,
Hy, born tusk,
Hulali, Gulala, goo,
Out goes you.

One is all, two is all,

Zick is all zeven,

Arrow bone, cracker bone,

Ten or eleven.

Six and four are ten,

Chase the red lion to his den.

2IO PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

Intry, mintry, cutry corn,

Apple seed and briar thorn,

Wire, briar, limber lock,

Six geese in a flock,

Set and sing by a spring,

My grandmother lives on the hill,

She has jewels, she has rings,

She has many pretty things,

O. U. T. spells out you go.

Hunt the squirrel through the woods,
I lost him, I found him;
I sent a letter to his son,
I lost him, I found him.

Fe, fi, fo, fum,

I smell the blood of an Englishman,

Be he live, or be he dead,

111 have his bones to make my bread (Plymouth.)

Eggs, cheese, butter, bread,

Stick, stock, stone, dead,

Hang him up, lay him down,

On his father's living ground. (Plymouth.)

Een, teen feather pip,

Sargo, larko, bump. (Plymouth.)

Inditie, Mentitie, Petitee, Dee,
Delia, Delia, Dominee,
Oacha, Poacha, Domminnicher,
Hing, Ping, Chee. (Plymouth.)

Henry, pennery, pit for gold,

Had a louse in his head,

Seven years old.

Seventy, seventy on to that,

This old logy will grow fat,

Hinchiman, pinchiman, make his back smart,

If ever I catch him, I'll sling him to my heart;

Sling, slang, chattery bang— out (Plymouth.)

Intry, tentry, tethery, methery,

Bank for over Diman Diny,

Ant, tant, tooch,

Up the causey, down the cross.

There stands a bonnie white horse,

It can gallop, it can trot,

It can carry the mustard pot,

One, two, three, out goes she. (Scotland.)

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 211

Eeny, teeny, other feather hip,
Satha, latha, kedarthun deck,
Een dick, teen dick, ether dick, fether dick, bunion,
Een bunkin, teen bunckeen, either bunkin, fether bunkin
digit (Indiana.)

Eenity, feenity, fickery, fig,

£1 del, dolman egg,

Irby, birky, stony rock,

An tan toosh Jack. (Scotland.)

Hinty, minty, cutry corn,
Apple seed and briar thorn;
Wire, briar, limber lock,
Three geese in a flock;
One flew east, and one flew west,
One flew over the cuckoo nest

Up on yonder hill,

There's where my father dwells.

He has jewels, he has rings,

He has many pretty things,

He has a hammer with two nails,

He has a cat with two tails.

Strike Jack, lick Tom,

Blow the bellows, old man. (New England.)

Onerie, twoerie,
Hahbo crackaro,
Henry Lary,
Guacahan Dandy,
Bullalie Cbllilie,
Forty-nine.

Onery, youery, eckery Anna,
Phillicy, pholocy, Nicholas John,
Queeby, quoby, Irish Mary,
Tinkerlam, Tarkerlum buck.

One ezzol, two ezzoll, zichara zan,
Bobtail vinegar, little tall tan,
Harum, scarum, virgin marum,
Zinctum, zanctum buck.

Tit, tat toe,
Here I go,
And if I miss
I pitch on this.

Rumble, rumble in the pot,
King's nail horse top,
Take off lid.

212 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

Fe, fi, fo f urn,

I smell the blood of an Englishman.

Be he live, or be he dead,

I'll have his bones to make my bread.

Een, teen, feather pip,
Sarco, larco, bump.

Akaha, ou oi, ha,
Paele, kakini,
I kana, hoole pa;
Mai, no alaee
Ohu, memona kapolena,
Kaide, wilu. (Hawaii.)

Een, twee, koppie thee,

Drie, vier, glaas ge beer,

Vzl zes bitter in de flesch,

Ziyen acht san op wacht,

Negen teen, ok hit diener gezzen. (Dutch.)

Ene tene mon emei,
Pastor Loni bone strei.
Ene funi, herke berke,
Wer-we-wo-was. ( German.)

Eggs, cheese, butter bread,

Stick, stone dead,

Stick him up and stick him down,

Stick him in the old man's crown. (United States.)

Ink, pink, papers, ink.

Am pam push. (Scotland.)

Ink, mink, pepper stink,

Sarko, Larko, Bump. (Plymouth.)

Hink, spink, the puddings stink,
The fat begins to fry,
Nobody at home but jumping Joan,
Father, mother and I. (English.)

One, two, three,
Out goes she.

One, two, three,

Nanny caught a flea,

The flea died, and Nanny cried,

Out goes she. (United States.)

One-ery, two-ery, eckeery Ann,

Phillisy. phollisy, Nicholas John,

Queebe, quarby, Irish Mary,

Sinkum, sankum, Johnny go buck. (Cambridge.)

OF AN OCTOGENARTAN. 213

Winnery, ory, accury han,
Phillisy, Phollisi, Nicholas Jan,
Queby, quorby, Irish Mary,
Sink, sunk, sock. (England.)

Eeny, meeny, mony mi,

Pastalony, bony sty,

Harby, darby, walk. (Michigan.)

Great house, little house, pig sty, barn.
Rich man, poor man, beggar man.

The last two were used in Plymouth in the ball game of
skip. One of the two boys who chose sides tossed the
bat to the other who caught it and held it. Then the two
alternately grasped it hand over hand, and if there was
enough of the bat left for the next one to hold it, and throw
it over his head, he had the first choice of players.

214 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

CHAPTER XXII.

I will add in this chapter some additional memoranda relat-
ing to marine matters, before proceeding with the regular or-
der which I had prescribed for my memories. In connection
with the account of vessels built and owned in Plymouth, it
will not be inappropriate to speak of those in Kingston and
Duxbury, of which I have any recollection, or of which I have
been able to obtain an account All of these in entering or
leaving their port passed through the waters of Plymouth.

Ezra Western & Sons owned more vessels than any other
firm in New England, except William Gray of Salem, and,
perhaps, more than any other in the United States, with the
above exception. The following is a partial list of their ves-
sels built in Duxbury with their tonnage as far as ascertained,
for which I am indebted to Major Joshua M. Cushing of Dux-
bury.

1800, Brig Rising Sun, 130 tons.
1800, Brig Sylvia, 130 tons.

1800, Schooner Ardent.

1801, Schooner Maria.
1801, Schooner Berin.

1801, Schooner Union .
180a, Schooner Volant.

1802, Schooner Laurel.

1802, Schooner Prissy.

1803, Schooner Sophia.
1803, Schooner Phoenix.
1803, Sloop Fame.
1803, Sloop Jerusha.
1803, Sloop Pomona.

1803, Brig Federal Eagle, 120 tons.

1804, Ship Julius Caesar, 300 tons.

1804, Brig Admittance, 128 tons.
180& Schooner Rising States.

1805, Schooner Fenelon.

1806, Schooner Salamis, 160 tons.
1806, Brig Ezra & Daniel, 125 tons.

1806, Brig Gershom, 136 tons.

1807, Ship Minerva, 250 tons.
1807, Brig Warren, 120 tons.

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 215

1807, Sloop Apollo.

1808, Ship Camillas, 350 tons.

1809, Ship Admittance, 300 tons.

1809, Sloop Linnett, 50 tons.

1810, Schooner Flora.

181 1, Schooner George Washington, 50 tons.
1813, Brig Golden Goose, 130 tons.

1813, Schooner Copack.

1815, Brig Despatch, 125 tons.

1816, Ship Brahmin, 339 tons.
1816, Brig Messenger, 135 tons.
1816, Schooner Collector, 70 tons.

1816, Sloop Exchange, 60 tons.

1817, Schooner St. Michael, 120 tons.

1817, Sloop Diamond, 50 tons.

1818, Brig Despatch, 130 tons.
i8i8» Schooner Angler, 60 tons.
1810, Brig Two Friends, 240 tons.

1819, Schooner Franklin, 60 tons.

1820, Brig Margaret, 185 tons.

1820, Brig Baltic, 212 tons.

1821, Schooner Star, 20 tons.

1821, Schooner Panoke, 60 tons.

1822, Brig Globe, 214 tons.

1823, Brig Herald, 162 tons.
1825, Ship Franklin, 246 tons
1825, Brig Pioneer, 231 tons.
1825, Brig Smyrna, 162 tons.

1825, Bark Pallas, 209 tons.

1826, Brig Levant, 219 tons.
1826, Brig Ganges, 174 tons.
1826, Schooner Dray, 86 tons.
1826, Schooner Triton, 75 tons.

1826, Ship Lagoda, 340 tons.

1827, Brig Malaga, 150 tons.
1827, Brig Ceres, 176 tons.

1827, Schooner Pomona, 84 tons.

1828, Ship Julian, 355 tons.
1828, Sloop Reform, 53 tons.

1828, Schooner Virginia, 73 tons.

1829, Sloop Glide, 60 tons.
1829, Brig Neptune, 196 tons.

1829, Schooner Seaman, 70 tons.

1830, Ship Renown, 300 tons.

1831, Ship Joshua Bates, 316 tons.

1831, Ship Undine, 253 tons.

1832, Schooner Seadrift, 90 tons.
1832, Schooner Ranger, 32 tons.

2l6 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

1832, Brig Angola, 220 tons.

1832, Ship Minerva, 291 tons.

1833, Schooner Volunteer, 109 tons.
1833, Ship Mattakeesett, 356 tons.

1833, Ship St Lawrence, 356 tons.

1834, Brig Messenger, 213 tons.
1834, Schooner Liberty, 92 tons.

1834, Ship Admittance, 426 tons.

1835, Ship Vandalia, 432 tons.

1835, Brig Trenton, 226 tons.

1836, Ship Eliza Warwick, 530 tons.

1837, Brig Oriole, 218 tons.
1837, Schooner Maquet, 80 tons.
1839, Brig Lion, 235 tons.
1839, Brig Smyrna, 196 tons.
1839, Ship Oneoo, 640 tons.

1841, Ship Hope, 880 tons.

1842, Sloop Union, 63 tons.

1842, Brig Vulture, 140 tons.

1843, Ship Manteo, 600 tons.

1844, Schooner Angler, 86 tons.

1844, Schooner Mayflower, 24 tons.

1845, Schooner Ocean, 103 tons.

1846, Schooner Express, 93 tons.

Ezra Weston, son of Ezra and Salumith ( Wadsworth) Wes-
ton of Duxbury, was born November 30, 1771. He married
Jerusha Bradford, and died August 15, 1842. . His sons, liv-
ing until manhood, were Gershom Bradford, born August 27,
1799; Alden Bradford, 1805, and Ezra, 1809.

Besides the ship yards of the Westons there were the yards
of Samuel Hall, Joshua Cushing and Joshua Cushing> Jr., the
Drews and of Paulding and Southworth, in which many ves-
sels were built.

The following is a list of vessels built and owned by Jos-
eph Holmes of Kingston, between 1801 and 1862, the year
of his death, for which I am indebted to Mrs. H. M. Jones of
Kingston :

1801, Brig Two Pollies, 250 tons.

1802, Brig Algol, 220 tons.

1804, Ship Lucy, 208 tons.

1805, Schooner Alexander, 100 tons.

1806, Brig Trident, 130 tons.

1806, Brig Brunette, 180 tons.

1807, Schooner Dolly, 106 tons.
1809, Brig Roxanna, 200 tons.

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 217

1812, Ship Elizabeth, 300 tons.

1813, Ship Chili, 300 tons.

1814, Schooner Milo, 100 tons.
1814, Brig Lucy, 140 tons.

1816, Schooner Ann Gurley, 100 tons.

1816, Brig Indian Chief, 150 tons.

1817, Schooner Celer, 64 tons.

181 7, Schooner Paraclite, 95 tons.

1818, Schooner Hope, 70 tons.
1818, Ship Rambler, 320 tons.

1820, Schooner Edward, 40 tons.

1821, Ship Columbus, 320 tons.

1822, Ship Horace, 53 tons.
1822, Ship Kingston, 325 tons.

1822, Brig Sophia and Eliza, 200 tons.

1823, Brig Leonidas, 180 tons.

1824, Schooner Cornelius, 35 tons.
1824, Schooner Pamela, 75 tons.

1824, Brig Deborah, 165 tons.

1825, Schooner Wm. Allen, 88 tons.
1825, Schooner Five Brothers, 76 tons.
1825, Brig Edward, 239 tons.

1825, Schooner Eveline, 75 tons.

1826, Schooner Industry, 72 tons.

1827, Bark Truman, 267 tons.

1827, Brig Galago, 160 tons.

1828, Schooner Hunter, 12 tons.
1828, Schooner January, 64 tons.
1828, Schooner February, 88 tons.
1828, Schooner March, 90 tons.

1828, Brig Roxanna, 140 tons.

1829, Brig Two Sisters, 130 tons.
1829, Schooner April, 64 tons.

1829, Ship Helen Mar, 290 tons.

1830, Bark Turbo, 280 tons.

1830, Ship Ohio, 300 tons.

1831, Bark Alasco, 286 tons.
1834, Schooner December, 50 tons.
1834, Ship Rialto, 460 tons.
1837, Schooner July, 48 tons.

1837, Schooner August, 117 tons.
1838* Schooner September, 119 tons.

1838, Brig Belize, 164 tons.

1838, Ship Herculean, 540 tons.

1839, Schooner October, no tons.

1840, Schooner Honest Tom, 115 tons.
1840, Schooner November, 107 tons.
1843, Ship Raritan, 499 tons.

2l8 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

1843, Schooner May, 92 tons.

1843, Schooner Jane, 92 tons.

1843, Brig Gustavus, 153 tons.

1845, Brfa Edward Henry, 164 tons.

1848, Schooner Risk, 04 tons.

1848, Ship Nathan Haimnm, 512 tons.

1849, Schooner Cosmos, 108 tons.

1849, Bark Ann and Mary, 210 tons.

1850, Schooner dark Winsor, 127 tons.

1851, Ship Joseph Holmes, 610 tons.

1852, Schooner Ocean Bird, 118 tons.

1852, Bark Fruiter, 290 tons.

1853, Schooner Kingfisher, 116 tons.
1855, Bark Sicilian, 320 tons.

1855, Bark Abbv. 178 tons.

1856, Bark Neapolitan, 320 tons.

1858, Brig Bird of the Wave, 178 tons.

1859, Bark Fruiterer, 320 tons.
i860, Bark Egypt, 547 tons.
1863, Bark Lemuel, 321 tons.

Mr. Holmes was in many respects a remarkable man. He
was born in Kingston in 1771, and died in that town in 1862.
On the 27th of May, 1821, he went to Bridgewater and col-
lected materials for building a vessel, hiring a yard near the
Raynham line and laid the keel of the brig Two Pollies. Af-
ter launching the brig Trident in 1806, she took all the spare
materials in the yard, and carried them to Kingston, where all
his vessels were built except the Two Pollies, Algol, Lucy,
Alexander and Trident, which were built in Bridgewater. He
stated in a letter written July 1, 1859, that he kept a vessel on
the stocks nearly all the time, and sometimes two, and once
built three in a year, all of which he built, fitted and sent to sea,
except two, on his own account and risk. In that letter he
said that at the age of 87 years and 7 months, he was about
to lay the keel of a vessel of two hundred tons, and that he
was writing the letter without spectacles. I knew him well,
and often called at his house on the corner of Main street.
He did his bank business in Boston, leaving only at the Plym-
outh Bank a deposit made up chiefly of his bank dividends, and
I was a little amused by a incident which occurred somewhere
between 1859 and 1862, for which I never saw an explanation,
though I think it may have been intended as a personal com-
pliment. One day while in the bank he said, " I don't suppose

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 2IQ

you would lend me any money if I wanted it" Knowing very
well that he was never in want of money, I said, "Mr. Holmes,
make out your note payable to your own order for such an
amount and on such a time as may be agreeable to you, and
endorse it, and you can have the money." He signed a note
for $5,000 on four months, and told me to place the money to
his credit. I did so, and the money remained untouched until
the note became due.

The following vessels were built and owned by his son Ed-
ward Holmes of Kingston :

1864, Schooner Anna Eldredge, 139 tons.

1865, Schooner Fisher, 105 tons.

1866, Bark Solomon, 600 tons.

1867, Schooner Lucy Holmes, 137 tons.

1868, Bark Hornet, 330 tons.

1869, Schooner Mary Baker, 139 tons.
1874, Brig H. A. Holmes, 320 tons.
Sloop Roxanna, 6b tons.

Sloop Leo, 70 tons.
Sloop Rosewood.

Besides the above the ship Matchless was built in Boston,
and owned by James H. Dawes of Kingston, and the ship
Brookline, with others, was owned by John and James N.
Sever of Kingston.

The following is a list of Kingston captains in the merchant
service within my memory, for which I am indebted to Capt.
John C. Dawes of Kingston:

William Adams, Frederick C. Bailey, Justus Bailey, Otis
Baker^ George Bicknell, Calvin Bryant, Cephas Dawes, James
H. Dawes, John C. Dawes, Paraclete Holmes, Edward Rich-
ardson, Benjamin T. Robbins, James W. Sfcver, Charles Stet-
son, William Symmes, Peter Winsor, William Winsor.

The following is a partial list of vessels wrecked within my
memory in Plymouth waters:

The earliest wreck in Plymouth waters of which I have any
recollection, was that of the brig Sally Ann, Captain Caul-
field, in January, 1835, bound from Porto Rico to Boston.
She was owned by Charles W. Shepard of Salem, and after
striking on Brown's Island became a total wreck on the beach.
No lives were lost, and Martin Gould, one of the crew, be-
came a permanent resident of Plymouth, and married in 1836
Ruth (Westgate) widow of William Barrett.

220 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

The next wreck within my memory was that of the brig
Regulator of Boston, Phelps master, on Brown's Island,
February 4, 1836. She was bound from Smyrna to Boston,
and with rudder and rigging frozen, and the vessel unman-
ageable, she came into the bay in a gale from east, northeast,
and bore away for Plymouth to find an anchorage in Saquish
Cove, where she saw a brig lying. She dropped her anchor
at the entrance of the channel in three fathoms of water, and
in the heavy swell struck hard. At eight in the evening she
floated with the tide, and held on until seven o'clock the next
morning, when she drifted into the breakers, and the captain
cut away his foremast, which carried with it the main mast,
and the main yard. At half-past eight she began to break up,
and George Dryden, an Englishman, Daniel Canton of New
York, and Augustus Tilton of Vermont, who took to the long
boat, capsized fifty yards under the lea of the brig and were
lost. John Smith, a Swede, and a Greek boy, were killed by
the wreckage, and the remainder of the crew retreated to the
main rigging, and their final safety was due to the presence,
in the channel, under the Gurnet, of the brig Cervantes of
Salem, Kendrick, master, which bound into Boston from
Charleston, had succeeded in finding a safe anchorage. The
crew of the Cervantes, after six hours of heroic work, took
off the men and carried them to their- own vessel. The cargo
of the Regulator consisted of four hundred and sixty bales of
wool, twenty-five cases of opium, twenty-five cases of gum
Arabic, twelve bales of senna, two thousand drums of Sultana
raisins, five packages of cow's tails, one case of saffron flower,
four hundred sacks of salt, and five tons of logwood. The
men saved were Captain Phelps, Martin Adams, first mate;
James Warden, second mate; Elijah Butler, and Louis Al-
meira.

On the 20th of November, 1848, the schooner Welcome
Return, from Charlottetown, bound for Boston, went ashore
in a gale at Rocky Hill. She had as passengers, John and
Mary Burns and six children : Ellen, 1 1 ; Catherine, 9 ; Henry,
7 ; Mary, 5 ; Rose, 3 ; and Sarah, six months old. The father
and mother and infant were saved, and all the others lost.
The father and mother died in Taunton, and the infant,
Sarah A., is living in Plymouth, the widow of John H. Par-
sons.

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 221

The next wreck I remember occurred on Friday, January
25, 1867, at Gunners' Point at Manomet. A gale with snow
set in Wednesday night, and the railroad was so blocked that
no trains ran through to Boston until Sunday, and the train
from Boston Wednesday night reached no further than Hali-
fax, where the passengers were supplied with refreshments.
The flag staff in Shirley Square was blown down, as well as
those at Pilgrim Hall and at the Cordage Factory, and also
the store house of the Cordage Works. Considerable damage
was done at the wharves, and the schooner Thatcher Taylor
was capsized, and her masts were carried away. The bark
Velma from Smyrna, October 18th, Zenas Nickerson of
Chatham, master, entered the bay on Thursday morning, and
during the early part of the gale, headed northeast with the
wind southeast, and finally struck at two o'clock Friday
morning, a half a mile off shore. Beating over the ledge she
came within twenty rods of the beach, and swung round with
her head to the sea. The crew took to the mizzen rigging.
A little before daylight the steward, unable to longer hold on,
fell overboard, carrying with him another of the crew, and
both were lost. The main mast soon fell, carrying also the
mizzen above the men, and through the forenoon the survi-
vors succeeded in holding on. At two o'clock in the after-
noon Henry B. Holmes, Paran Bartlett, James Bartlett, James
Lynch, Henry Briggs, Otis Nichols, Robert Reamy and Oc-
tavius Reamy, reached the vessel and saved the re-
mainder of the crew as follows: Zenas Nick-
erson of Chatham, master; Starks Nickerson of
Chatham, first mate; John G. Allen of New Bedford, second
mate; Augustus L. Jenkins of Portsmouth, John Florida of
New York, John Perry of Lisbon and Joseph Sylvia of Bos-
ton. The names of the two men lost were William Sampson,
England, and Manuel Guscres of Pico, Western Islands. The
men were carried to the Manomet House, and when stripped,
one called Jack was found to have on seven undershirts and
four pairs of stockings. Dr. Alexander Jackson of Plymouth,
and Dr. C. J. Wood of Chiltonville, the father of Gen. Leonard
Wood, who was then practicing in Chiltonville, attended the
men, and performed a number of necessary amputations.
While they were under treatment I visited them several times

222 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

and rendered such assistance as I was able. The vessel be-
longed to G. W. Bisbee, and her cargo consisted of 1245 cases
of figs; 1 120 boxes do; 7,937 drums, do; 3,527 mats, do;
1,340 drums of Sultana raisins; 7 casks of prunes; 108 bales
of wool ; 180 bags of canary seed ; 6 cases of gum tragacanth ;
3,070 pieces of logwood; 50 cases of figs; 8,407 cases, and
1,587 drums, do, the consignees of which were Baker & Mor-
rell, Ryder & Hardy, and the captain.

In the same gale the schooner Shooting Star, Captain Coe,
with corn from Newcastle, Delaware, for Salem, went ashore
at Saquish, and was lost.

In 1873 the schooner Daniel Webster, loaded with iron,
went ashore on Brown's Island, and was a total loss.

The brig John R. Rhodes, loaded with corn, was wrecked
in the outer harbor in the winter of 1850-1. The wreck was
bought by John D. Churchill and others, and after repairs in
Boston was sold.

In previous chapters I have mentioned Samuel Doten in
connection with the escape of Plymouth vessels from the em-
bargo, but I have not by any means done with him. He was
the son of Samuel and Eunice (Robbins) Doten, and was born
in 1783. His father had three wives, and twenty-three chil-
dren, the oldest of whom was Samuel, born in 1783, and the
youngest, James, born in 1829. Captain Doten in early life
was an enterprising shipmaster, later a builder and owner of
vessels engaged in the grand bank fishery, and finally a lumber
merchant on Doten's yard and wharf, the latter of which he
built not far from 1825. He was a man of commanding figure,
judicious, active, and prompt, selected many times to serve as
chief marshal at celebrations of the Pilgrim Society and town.
He married in 1807 Rebecca, daughter of Nathaniel Brad-
ford, and died September 8, 1861. Two of his sons, Major
Samuel H. and Captain Charles C, will be noticed in a later
chapter in connection with the civil war. Captain Doten was
engaged in the privateer service during the war of 1812, and
the following narrative of some of his experiences in that ser-
vice may be interesting to my readers. For its incidents, and
for extracts from his log and diary, I am indebted to Captain
Charles C. Doten, his son.

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 223

CHAPTER XXIII.

During the war of 1812, as in that of the Revolution, the
government of the United States issued "letters of marque/'
giving authority to private individuals to buifii, arm, and man
vessels, for the purpose of making reprisals upon and destroy-
ing the enemy's commerce. While these "privateers," as they
were called, were entirely outside of and unconnected with
the regular naval force of the country, they became one of the
most potent weapons wielded on the high seas in behalf of
the government. Their destructiveness to English commerce
made them the dread of the ocean, for the daring men who
engaged in privateering enterprises were the best shipmasters
and seamen of their day, perfectly familiar with all coast
ports and the highways of the sea, so they knew where to
strike most effectively for their own advantage. A vessel cap-
tured under the English flag, became, with her cargo, the law-
ful prize of her captors, and the proceeds of sale were divided
under established rules among the owners, officers and men
of the privateer, the business in many instances being very
profitable. The English commercial vessels likewise armed
for defence, and quite often there were spirited engagements
before the English Jack would be lowered to the Stars and
Stripes flown by some saucy, fast sailing Yankee brig, or long,
low, rakish schooner of the Baltimore clipper type.

France being friendly to the United States, her ports were
open to our privateers and their prizes, so the English channel
itself, right under the nose of Great Britain, was a tempting
cruising ground where our letters of marque made many a
successful venture and some of them came to grief in capture
by the English men-of-war.

As has been previously said in this series of reminiscences,
Plymouth had her full number of adventurous spirits, and
her "men of the sea" on board the many privateers, sailing
from southern and northern ports. On two vessels, however,
the "Leo" and the "George Little," fitted at Boston, the crews
were largely made up of Plymouth men, so they may be re-

224 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

garded as the "Plymoutht privateers" of 1812. Of the "Leo's"
career we have no detailed knowledge, but it has been told us
that Captain Harvey Weston, Captain Robert Hutchinson,
Captain John Chase, Captain Nat Bartlett and others from
this town whose names are not known, were members of her
company, and that she took several prizes before she herself
was forced to surrender over on the English coast Her men
were imprisoned for the rest of the war period, some of them
being sent to the horrible Dartmoor prison of England, of
which history says that the dreadful tales of suffering and
death in the "black hole" and massacre by the guards are all
too truthful, but the "Leo's" men were not there when the
prison was at its very worst.

The "George Little" was a smart hermaphrodite brig,
mounting ten guns and a "chaser," and was owned and fitted
at Boston. Her commander was Captain Nathaniel Spooner;
first lieutenant, Captain Samuel Doten; second lieutenant,
William Holmes, and third lieutenant, — Turner, all of Plym-
outh. The crew list contained the names of many of our
townsmen, but as it was not preserved, only those of Jacob
Morton, William Hammatt and William Stacy are now re-
membered. A private log book of the voyage was kept by
first lieutenant Doten, and is now in possession of his son,
Captain Charles C. Doten, the first entry being: Monday, De-
cember 26, 1814, at 2 p. m., passed Boston light, fresh gale,
north by east, and extreme cold. At 3 p. m. chased by one of
His Majesty's gun brigs, and outsailed her with ease."

At that time there was a fleet of British men-of-war cruis-
. ing along the American coast from Maine to Virginia, several
frigates and gun brigs making rendezvous at Provincetown,
and often coming over near the Gurnet, thence running up
off Boston and along the Cape Ann shore. It was from one
of these brigs that the "George Little" so easily escaped and
got to sea. The log has daily entries, that of January 7, 1815,
recording that William Stacy fell from the top gallant mast
head, sending down royal yard, by the royal mast pitch
poling, and was saved on topsail yard." "January 12, at 6.25
a. m., made a sail four leagues away, and set chase. At 11.30
she fired a lee gun — 11.40 fired another, and set English
colors — 11.55, seeing American colors she fired her stern

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 225

chasers in good direction for us, but without effect, they fall-
ing short, and in a moment struck. Proved to be the ship
•'Mary," six guns and eighteen men, James Bags, master,
from New Foundland with fish for Lisbon. 13th took some
articles from the prize, put Mr. Turner and nine men on
board, and ordered her to proceed for first port in the United
States/'

It may here be stated that the "Mary" arrived safely at
Marblehead, where with her cargo she was sold, yielding to
the "George Little's" owners and men a good amount of prize
money. The "Mary's" crew, being two to one of the "Little's"
men put on board, attempted to retake her, but after a severe
fight were driven below, and Jacob Morton of Plymouth, who
was a powerful man, drew the companion slide over them,
and upon it placed a large anchor, lifting alone the weight
which two ordinary men would have found a test of their
strength.

The "George Little" held on her course across the ocean,
intending to cruise in the English channel and take her prizes,
if any were there secured, into French ports. Off the Azores
or Western Islands, January 21st and 22d, she chased a ves-
sel but lost her. January 28 she overhauled the Prussian
schooner "Ferwarhting," from St. Michael's for Hamburg
with fruit, and put Captain Bags, his son and mate of the
"Mary" on board.

"February 2 overhauled Prussian brig, "Ann Elizabeth,"
from London to St. Michael's, in ballast. Put four prisoners
on board and ordered her to proceed. Lost both boats board-
ing, but saved all the men."

February 4th and 5th the privateer brig was in chase of a
sloop, which escaped in the darkness of the second night, and
the next day the "George Little" met her own fate, the log
leading as follows: "February 6, made a sail on our lee bow,
which gave chase at 8.30. Bore away, made all sail, suppos-
ing her to be a frigate. At 9 she fired her bow chaser, which
fell short. At 10 her shot went over us. At 11.30, finding
no means of escape, we reluctantly struck our colors to His
Majesty's ship "Granicus" of 36 guns, Captain William Fur-
long Wise. So was lost the "George Little," in my opinion
for the want of those necessaries to induce one and all to do

226 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

their best to save her, as we were short of bread, beef — poor
rum — generally spirits sunk — this is the effect of too much
economy privateering. So ends these 24 hours, rainy, and
overpowering all with heavy hearts."

The closing remarks above would indicate that the owners
of the "George Little" had not been liberal in fitting out the
vessel, and in consequence some discontent had existed on
board. The "Granicus" took the prisoners to Gibraltar, where
they were placed with others on hulks anchored in the harbor,
and kept during March. On the 26th of that month "His
Majesty's ship Eurylaus from the Chesapeake, arrived with
news of the ratification of peace between the United States
and Great Britain," and on the 29th the prisoners were em-
barked for England in the "Eurylaus," arriving at Plymouth
April 16th. Captain Doten's memorandum becomes personal
after that date, and relates that on the 17th he was sent on
board the "Ganges" 74, and on the 21st "had intelligence of the
arrival of the Mary at Marblehead, by an American paper of
February 24." April 24, he says he "obtained permission to go
on shore from the Ganges," and May 3d, "smuggled myself
on board the 'Royal Sovereign/ Captain Spence, bound to
Boston as a cartel" — a vessel commissioned to exchange pris-
oners. The "Royal Sovereign" had 400 prisoners, and as she
was coming direct to Boston, Captain Doten, not being in-
cluded in the list, took his chances as a stowaway. The vessel
sailed from Plymouth, England, May 4th, and arrived in Bos-
ton after a passage of 35 days. In crossing the Grand Banks
the schooner "Almira" of Provincetown was spoken, 25 days
from home, with 10,000 fish.

A personal expense account appended to Captain Doten's
journal of the "George Little's" cruise shows that at Gibraltar
he spent $51.25, among the items being $15.25 for provisions,
and $1.00 for liquor, a proportion which certainly was very
moderate for those days. On board the "Ganges" his expenses
were $14.95, and at Plymouth, $105.63, mostly for clothing,
and passage home. The latter, seven pounds, was probably
paid to Captain Spence for not finding him on board until the
"Royal Sovereign" was at sea. The total of $171.83 paid out
on account of capture, was recouped with a fair margin of
profit from his share of the prize money of the "Mary."

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 227

The lack of facilities for quick transmission of news at
that time, is strikingly illustrated by the fact that the treaty
to end the war was signed at Ghent, December 24, 1814, two
days before the "George Little" sailed from Boston, so her
entire cruise was made in a period of unknown peace. The
battle of New Orleans, in which the British were defeated
with a loss of 2,000 men, including the death of their com-
manding general, Edward Pakenham, was fought January 8,
1815, two weeks after the agreement on articles of peace,
which at the present time would have been known all over
the world within a few minutes of their adoption.

It was a custom for old shipmasters and seamen, after their
seafaring days were over, occasionally to meet in Captain
Doten's counting room at the head of what is now Captain £.
B. Atwood's wharf, and while a wild northeaster howled out-
side they would toast their shins at a good fire, smoke their
pipes, and spin yarns of privateering days, or their experi-
ences in various voyages to the West Indies or ports across
the ocean. There could be no keener enjoyment to those of
younger generations than to sit while all was blue about them
from the tobacco exhalations, and listen to these "tales of the
sea11 from men who were veritable actors in the scenes so
vividly recalled. Two incidents pertaining to Captain Doten's
cruise in the "George Little," as her first lieutenant, thus came
out, not written in his journal. When at the time of her cap-
ture by the "Granicus" the American flag was hauled down
on the "George Little," Lieutenant Doten was not only cha-
grined, but wrathy, and swore that he wouldn't surrender his
sword to any Englishman, so he broke it across his knee. The
boarding officer from the "Granicus" on finding him without
side arms to give up, at once declared him not entitled to
consideration, and ordered him ironed. This was done, and
in that condition, with Captain Spooner, he was taken to the
"Granicus." To the great surprise of the boarding officer who
had thus thought to humiliate him, he was greeted by Captain
Wise of the frigate as he stepped on the deck with, "Hallo,
Sam I what have you got those on for?" "Because I was a
fool and broke my sword," was the response, at which Captain
Wise laughed and called the master-at-arms to relieve him
of the "bracelets," bidding him go to the private cabin. There

228 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

Captain Wise soon joined him, and over a bottle of the best,
they renewed the acquaintance of some years before, when
Captain Doten, then master of the brig "Dragon" of Plym-
outh, Mass., had sailed for three years in succession under
convoy of Captain Wise, engaged in carrying naval stores up
the Baltic from Plymouth, England, the "Dragon" having
been chartered by the British government among other
merchant vessels for that purpose. This service brought Cap-
tain Doten into quite intimate relations with many of the
English naval officers, so that when he was a prisoner at
Gibraltar, he was allowed many privileges. Among these was
shore going almost daily, and passage through the batteries
to the top of the Rock, where he could spend the time more
agreeably than on the prison hulk. One day in going up he
found Lieutenant Daly, who was in charge of one of the bat-
teries, unshotting the guns, and was told by him that some
ships in the offing were from America and signalled that the
British had won a great victory, in honor of which he was
ordered to fire a salute when the details were known. Much
depressed in spirits, Captain Doten listened duriner the day
for the salute, but it was not fired. Returning in the afternoon,
Daly was then engaged in reshotting the guns, and explained
that when the ships got nearer, the fortress had learned that
there indeed had been a great battle "at a place called New
Orleans," but it had resulted in a tremendous defeat for the
British arms, and General Pakenham had been "sent home in
a hogshead of rum." Daly — who of course was an Irishman —
added at a low breath, "and I'm glad of it." Captain Doten
told the great news to his fellow prisoners on the hulk, and
that night after they had been confined below the gratings
one of their number, a ship carpenter, who had located where
a barrel of beer rested on the deck, bored up through the
planks and bilge of the cask, inserting an improvised tube or
pipe, and drew off the contents. Of course a great deal ran
to waste, but enough was secured to make all hands feel
mighty "merry," and they hilariously celebrated the victory of
New Orleans, taunting the guard so outrageously, singing
"Yankee Doodle," and bandying epithets, that they were only
partially quieted by the gratings being removed, the guard
drawn up around the hatchways with muskets pointed down

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 229

into the crowd, and the threat made to fire if the disturbance
did not cease. Undoubtedly there would have been shooting,
but the English officers had heard rumors of peace, and under
such circumstances the killing of unarmed prisoners would
have been deemed murder. They "made a night of it," and
the next day, when the loss of the beer was discovered, the
cause of their high spirits was explained, while the shrewd
manner in which they had obtained the liquid for the jollifi-
cation, was characterized by the commander of the hulk, as
"another d — d smart Yankee trick."

During the passage of the Royal Sovereign bringing home
400 prisoners, she was caught in a heavy gale near the Grand
Banks, but Captain Spence, her commander, was a good sea-
man, and made a safe arrival at Boston.

23O PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

CHAPTER XXIV.

During my youth the house now occupied by Miss Perkins,
the daughter of the late John Perkins, was owned and occu-
pied by George Drew, who has already been noticed. He built
the hotel which stood on the corner of Middle street, and be-
sides conducting a stable on that street, was largely engaged
in -the management of the Boston line of stages. Among
other children he had a son, John Glover Drew, who was one
of my playmates and schoolmates. John Glover was afflicted
at times with a singular infirmity which like paralysis of the
vocal organs would for the space of fifteen minutes disable
him from uttering a word. I remember once his receiving a
flogging for not answering a question put to him by the
teacher the first time an attack occurred in school. I had a
classmate at Harvard who for a time was affected in the same
way, but in both cases the infirmity finally disappeared.

George Drew had a brother, Thomas, known as Dr. Drew,
though I never knew of his practicing medicine, who for many
years rendered important service in the educational field in
Plymouth. Besides teaching a private school, he was in con-
junction with Benjamin Drew, a teacher in the school in town
square, and, when what was called the town school was es-
tablished in 1827, and a school house built in that year for
its accommodation in School street, opposite the rear land of
the Davis building lot, he was selected as its teacher. He was
also town clerk from 1818 to 1840, succeeding Deacon
Ephraim Spooner in that office. He had a son, Thomas, three
years older than myself, one of the old boys in the High school
when I entered it in 1832. Tom was a bright fellow, and for
many years performed valuable service as a journalist in the
offices of the Worcester Spy and the Boston Herald. While
William H. Lord was the teacher of the High school, a gentle-
man, by the way, very popular with the boys, and one who
always enjoyed a joke, it was the custom at the opening of the
school in the morning for the scholars to rise in turn and re-
peat a verse of scripture. On the morning after it became

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 2$I

known that the teacher was engaged to Miss Persis Kendall,
the daughter of Rev. Dr. Kendall, Tom rose in his place and
said, "Salute Persis, the beloved of the Lord."

John Perkins, a later occupant of the house under considera-
tion, son of John and Sarah (Adams) Perkins of Kingston,
married in 1825 Adeline Tupper of Kingston, and established
himself as a hatter in Plymouth, where he ever after made his
home. He was many years a constable of the town, and
Deputy Sheriff, and in the year 1856 he was Sheriff of Plym-
outh county. While constable and deputy, I have reason to
know, as chairman of the Board of Selectmen during a long
period, that he performed his duties with firmness, and at the
same time with great discretion. For instance in arresting
men for drunkenness, especially in cases where the offence
was unusual or perhaps accidental, he was careful not to dis-
grace them by a public exhibition of their weakness, and often
led them by circuitous routes to their homes, exacting the
promise of a reform which rougher treatment would have
tended to prevent. On one occasion, however, his usual dis-
cretion failed him. It was during the civil war when it was
feared that confederate emissaries gathered in Canada might
by secret invasion of our towns cause widespread damage by
extensive conflagrations. While in Boston one afternoon I
was informed by Alexander Holmes, President of the Old
Colony Railroad, that he had been notified by the chief of
police of Boston that an invasion of our coast towns was ex-
pected that night, and that extraordinary precautions had been
ordered for the protection of public buildings and lumber
yards, wharves and freight houses. As I had an appointment
in Boston that evening and could not return home, I tele-
graphed to Mr. Perkins to place a dozen or fifteen watchmen
in various places, stating my reason, but telling him to say
nothing about it for fear of a popular alarm. When I came
home the next day I was a little mortified to find that the
story had been told, and that the whole town had been through
the night in a fever of excitement, and consternation. I con-
soled myself, however, with the belief that I had done my
duty and would have been unable to justify myself if I had
failed to act on the information received, and any untoward
act had occurred. The same precautions were taken in the

232 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

cities on the coast, but with less notoriety. Mr. Perkins died
August 20, 1877.

There was another alarm which occurred in 1871 or 1872,
which it may be well to mention here of which nothing was
known except by those immediately concerned. A letter was
received from New York at the Plymouth Bank, of which I
was president, in which the writer stated that he had overheard
a plan to enter and rob the bank on or about a certain night,
and advised that proper precautions be taken. Watchmen
were placed in my house, and in that of the cashier, and extra
watchmen in the bank. In those days it was frequently the
plan for bank burglars to secure the officers having the keys,
and carrying them to the bank to force them to open the safe.
The bank watchmen were consequently instructed to admit no
one to the bank on any pretense, even if accompanied by the
officers themselves. After I think the second or third night
of watching, the writer of the letter appeared at the bank, and
said that the plan had been given up. The men in New York
had either heard from their pal, who had been some time in
Plymouth, that he had discovered indications of unusual pre-
cautions on the part of the bank, or for some other reason
had decided to abandon the scheme. If the writer of the let-
ter had demanded or asked for money, his story might have
been thought a fake, but as he betrayed no wish for compen-
sation, and was perfectly satisfied with the payment of twenty-
five dollars for his expenses, I came to the conclusion that he
was a stool pigeon, under pay from the New York police, and
neither asked nor expected pay from the bank.

An actual entry of the bank occurred on the 13th of Jan-
uary, 1830. Pelham Winslow Warren, brother of the late
Dr. Winslow Warren of Plymouth, about to leave town for a
season to attend to his duties as clerk of the Massachusetts
House of Representatives, deposited for safe keeping his sil-
ver and plate in the vault in the basement of the bank, whose
place of business was at that time the southerly end of the
building which stood where the Russell building now stands.
The deposit consisted of nine silver table spoons, twelve silver
teaspoons, two silver ladles, one pair of silver sugar tongs,
one silver toast rack, one silver fish knife ; and these plated ar-
ticles, one coffee pot, one teapot, one sugar dish, one cream

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 233

pot, one cake basket, and two pairs of candlesticks, all of
which were marked J. T., the initials of Jeanette Taylor, the
maiden name of Mr. Warren's wife. AH of the above arti-
cles were stolen, and the entry was made through a back
window by means of a short ladder, evidently cut from a long-
er one, the other part of which was afterwards found in the
back yard of a resident of the town. None of the property
of the bank was missing, except a roll of twenty ten cent
pieces, which happened to be in the basement vault. It was
evident that the burglar knew of the deposit of the silver, and
was probably a Plymouth man, as no attempt was made to
enter the safe in the banking room. Strong suspicions were
entertained of a man, whom I remember very well, but no
arrest was ever made.

For many years the two houses next but two north of the
Perkins house, were at different times owned and occupied
by Johnson Davee, who was a son of Solomon and Jedidah
(Sylvester) Davee. He was a mason by trade, and married
in 1823, Phebe, daughter of Ephraim Finney. He was one
of the water commissioners who made a contract with the Jer-
sey City cement pipe company to lay the pipe for the Plym-
outh water works. In the performance of his duties as com-
missioner he rendered important service to both the town and
the company by following with trowel in hand the laying of
the pipe and assuring himself that every foot had a sufficient
covering of cement properly mixed and laid. He was a man
of brains, and used them so that he often found himself en-*
countering public opinion, which was said by Carlyle to be
the opinion of fools. He died December 25, 1882. Ezra
Johnson Davee, his son, born in 1824, entered about 1840 the
counting room of Langdon & Co., a Boston house in the
Smyrna trade, and after a few years, on the death of the
Smyrna bookkeeper he was sent out to take charge of the bus-
iness until another man could be sent out to take his place.
He has been there ever since either managing the affairs of
Langdon & Co., or his own for more than forty years, visit-
ing his family in Plymouth about once in five years. I made
a passage with him in 1895 in the Cephalonia on his return
from one of these visits, and now in 1905 he has just sailed
August 1, in the Ivernia for Liverpool, at the age of eighty-

234 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

one, with the vigor of middle life scarcely impaired. He
married in Smyrna Betsey Ghout and Amelia Marion Ghout,
the latter accompanying him on his late visit home.

The northerly house of the two owned by Mr. Davee was
kept as a public house, under the name of the Old Colony
House for some years prior to 1871, by N. M. Perry, who was
a native of either Norfork or Worcester county. He had pre-
viously kept the Mansion House on the corner of North and
Court streets, and later after living in Whitman a short time,
he returned to Plymouth and kept what is now the Plymouth
Rock House, called by him the Old Colony House, where he
died July 17, 1877.

Coomer Weston of whom I next speak, was the son of
Coomer and Patty (Cole) Weston, and was born in 1784.
He was the keeper of the jail some years, which position he
resigned in 1829, and moved into the house now occupied by
Mrs. Wm. S. Danforth, where he lived until 1839 or 1840,
when he built a house on the corner of Court street and
Faunce's lane, now Allerton street, where he died July 7,
1870. He was the first captain of the Standish Guards.
During the last thirty years of his life he was interested in
raising fruit, especially apples and pears, and in horticulture.
He married in 1804 Hannah, daughter of Jabez Doten, and had
Coomer, 1805, who was also at one time captain of the Stand-
ish Guards; Francis Henri, 1807, an enterprising shipmaster;
Hannah Doten, 1809; Ann Maria, 1813; Lydia, 1818; Thom-
as, 1821, a clergyman settled at various times in various towns,
and our townsman, Myles Standish Weston.

In 1849 Lemuel Bradford opened a store called the North
end grocery, where the Cold Spring Grocery store now stands,
and up to that time there were only three stores where there
are now twenty-seven between North street and the Kingston
line. At the date above mentioned there were two hotels in
the town, while now there are six open all the year, and
four more open only during the summer. As an indication
of the extension of the town towards the North, it may be
stated that while in 1880 the center of population was in the
center of Leyden, Market and Summer streets, it was in 1900,
at the house of Capt E. B. Atwood on Court street. It is
probable that it will be found under the last census to be still
further North.

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 235

In a modest house a little beyond the North end grocery on
the east side of the street there lived for many years one of
the uncles of the town. Every town has its uncles, and
wherever you find them they are sterling, upright men, who
have a kindly and affectionate word for and from everybody.
Peter Holmes was the man known only as Uncle Peter, a ship-
master in his early days who sailed for my grandfather, and
whose letters written from foreign ports, which I have read,
show him to have been skilful and trusted in his profession.
My young readers will be fortunate if they find as worthy a
man as my old Uncle Peter. He died July 17, 1869. He
married in 1801 Sally, daughter of Lazarus Harlow, and had
five sons, one of whom was our late townsman, Peter Holmes,
who lived in the house now occupied by Dr. Brown on North
street, and six daughters, two of whom married our venerable
townsman, William Rider Drew.

There was another uncle, Uncle Lem, sailmaker by trade,
whose soul was as white as the canvas on which he worked.
He was the son of Lemuel and Abigail (Pierce) Simmons,
and was born in 1790. He married in 1818 Priscilla, daugh-
ter of Thomas Sherman, and died December 6, 1863. No
truer inscription was ever cut on a gravestone than that which
says in simple, unaffected words that, "he was universally be-
loved and respected; honest and upright, with a cheerful,
pleasant manner, and a kind, benevolent heart. To know
him was to love him."

There was still another uncle of whom I am glad of an
opportunity to say a word as the tribute of a friend to his
memory. Uncle Ed. Watson, the Lord of the Isle, was in
many respects a remarkable man. Born and bred on Clark's
Island at the entrance of Plymouth harbor about four miles
from town, and eighty acres in extent, he there spent his life
a sailor and fisherman when occasion demanded, always a
farmer familiar with the secrets which nature is ready to dis-
close to her lovers, a poet of no mean acquirements, and above
all a student of the events of the world, a philosopher who
acted his philosophy without preaching it, and who as much
deserves the title of sage as some who in a broader field won
a more notorious name. He did not talk philosophy as Haw-
thorne described Emerson and Thoreau talking it, leaning on

236 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

their hoes in the garden with Alcott sitting on the fence dis-
coursing on the "Why and the Wherefore," but as he labor-
iously tilled the soil he recognized in every stone and worm
and blade of grass the prodigality of nature, and in every an-
nual bloom of the buttercup and rose a lesson of obedience to
the laws of God. He said to me once, "Oh, Mr. Davis, if all
were as obedient to the divine will as the blossoms on yonder
apple tree, b^ Geo. Germain, what a world this would be."
In his island home he was hospitable to the last degree. Visi-
tors came to his grounds as if they were public, and if friends
were among them he dropped his hoe or spade or scythe to en-
tertain them when his labor in the field could ill be spared, and
perhaps invited them to partake of his noonday meal, but like
Sir Roderick:

"Yet not in action, word or eye,
Failed aught in hospitality."

I was one day at Plymouth Rock with Wm. E. Forster, who
had recently distinguished himself by his efforts in parliament
in favor of the educational bill, when Mr. Watson came up
the wharf with a kinnerkin in one hand, and a pair of chick-
ens in the other. I introduced him to Mr. Foster as a member
of the English parliament, and he asked if the gentleman was
Wm. E. Forster— Forster, with an "r," and when assured that
he was, he said, "I am glad to see you. I know all about you,
that last education speech you made hit the nail on the head."
The two then engaged in conversation on English affairs, and
after they separated I pointed out to Mr. Forster the island on
which Mr. Watson was born, and had always lived, having
had only a schooling of three months in all his life. "You
astonish me," he replied, adding, "why* that man knows more
about English politics than three-fourths of the members of
parliament."

To give him his full name, Edward Winslow Watson, son
of John and Lucia Marston Watson, was born December 17,
I797> and died where he was born, August 8, 1876. His
funeral was unique and impressive. The green bottom lap
streak boat in which many hundreds of times he had stem-
med the winds and tide was the catafalque which bore him to
town, while the boats of his island and Saquish and Gurnet
friends, like white-winged angels, attended him to his rest.

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 237

In closing this notice of my friend I will quote from his little
book of poems lines illustrating the serious thought which his
mind evolved from the most trifling incidents of life:

"Dear Jennie, that nice cranberry tart,
You gave to me bedecked with paste,
Lies like a bleeding, broken heart,
Whose inner life has run to waste.

You placed it on the basket top,
In paper coverings still it lay,
Mid rolling seas a lurch it got.
And bled its inner life away.

Its fate, now like the buoyant heart
That o'er life's billowy ocean springs
Till disappointment tips the bark,
And overstrained, snap go the strings."

238 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

CHAPTER XXV.

I speak next of the Samoset House estate, not for the pur-
pose of following its title, but for the purpose of speaking of its
occupants at various times. As long ago as I remember the es-
tate extended from Court street up Wood's Lane to what is now
Allerton street. Its Court street line extended by the line of
the present gutter, the street being widened afterwards by cut-
ting off a strip of that and adjoining estates on the north.
There was a high, close board fence along the street, which I
remember because when a boy I brought up against it a run-
away horse which I was riding. The house on the estate was
what is now the old part of the Samoset, and was owned and
occupied by Mrs. Betsey H. Hodge and her father, Dr. Jas.
Thacher, until 1827. It faced the south, and was reached by
a driveway from Wood's Lane, and its spacious yard was
bounded on the southwest by a carriage house and barn, a
handsome lawn lying along Court street. The estate called
Longwood was altogether the most aristocratic one in town,
and at the above date, with the exception of the old Merrick
Ryder house on the southeast corner of the Mixter lot, and an
old red house on the corner of Lothrop Place, no houses were
in sight at the north. In 1827, Dr. Thacher moved into the
easterly part of the Winslow house on North street, and the es-
tate was sold to Charles Sever, who married in that year Mrs.
Hodge's daughter Jane. Mr. Sever was a Kingston man,
brother of Col. John and James N. Sever, and as I have no
recollection of his connection with any business in Plymouth,
I think he must have been associated with his brothers in navi-
gation and foreign trade. In 1833 Mr. Sever sold the estate
to John Thomas, and moved temporarily into the house on
Middle street next below Mr. Beaman's undertaker's establish-
ment, while he was building the Sever house on Russell street,
which he did not live to occupy, but which was occupied by his
family until the recent death of his daughter Catherine.

In 1837 Mr. Thomas sold the estate to Jason Hart, and re-
moved to New York. His business connections in that city,

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 239

and his death in Irvington, have been referred to in a previous
chapter. Mr. Hart has been already noticed as a member of
the firm of Hart and Alderman, and in business alone where
the store of H. H. Cole on Main street now stands.

In 1844 the Old Colony Railroad corporation then building
their road from Boston to Plymouth, bought the estate and
built and furnished the Samoset House, which was opened in
1845, under the management of Joseph Stetson, who was em-
ployed by the road for the purpose. Mr. Stetson was suc-
ceeded by James S. Parker and Henry C Tribou, under the
firm name of Parker & Tribou, who kept it under the
direction of the railroad until 1850. In that year the house
and furniture were sold to the Samoset House Association,
who leased it until 1878, at various times to the following per-
sons in the order named: Granville Gardner and Henry C.
Tribou, under the firm name of Gardner & Tribou, James S.
Parker, A. & N. Hoxie, Comfort Whiting and Peleg C. Chand-
ler. In 1878, while Mr. Chandler was lessee, he bought the es-
tate, and in 1882 his widow sold it, exclusive of house lots at its
westerly end to T. F. Frobisher, In 1883 Mr. Frobisher sold
the above remaining estate to Daniel H. Maynard, who sold
it a few years ago to the present proprietors, James S. Clark
and the late Edward E. Green doing business under the firm
name of Clark & Green.

While I am wandering about the North part of the town, let
me speak of Bourne Spooner, who having been dead thirty-
five years, cannot be remembered by any of my readers who are
much less than fifty years of age. Few are aware to whom
the town was indebted, for the establishment of the Plymouth
Cordage Co., a corporation filling so large a place among the
industries of the town, and which with its growing proportions
promises to stand many years as a conspicuous and deserved
monument to his memory. He was a son of Nathaniel and
Mary (Holmes) Spooner, and was born in Plymouth, Feb-
ruary 2, 1790. After receiving the education which our public
schools could furnish, he went to New Orleans, where he spent
len years engaged in rope making, but in what capacity I have
no means of knowing. It is probable that the material used
in the manufacture was Kentucky hemp, as its transportation
from the hemp fields by the Mississippi river was easy and

240 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

cheap. It is doubtful whether sisal from Mexico was much
used in those days and Russia hemp and Manilla could be ob-
tained in Boston more expeditiously and cheaper than in New
Orleans. The unprofitableness of slave labor employed in
that city appealed to his Yankee spirit of thrift, and he con-
ceived the idea of establishing if possible a cordage factory in
his native town. Returning home he kept for a time a store
opposite the Green, and later conferred with a number of gen-
tlemen in Boston, who looked favorably on the scheme of a
Plymouth factory, and on the 12th of July, 1824, an act of in-
corporation was granted by the Massachusetts legislature to
Bourne Spooner, William Lovering, Jr., John Dodd and John
Russell, and their associates, as the Plymouth Cordage Com-
pany, with power to hold real estate not exceeding twenty
thousand dollars. The location decided upon for the factory
was in the north part of Plymouth, on a stream supplied by
two brooks, one of which was called Nathans brook, after Na-
than Holmes, the grandfather of Gideon F. Holmes, the pres-
ent treasurer of the company, the capacity of which was
twenty horse power. Thus it seems evident that any very
considerable growth of the establishment was not anticipated.
The part of Plymouth selected for the factory was called in
Pilgrim days, "Plain Dealing," but in my boyhood, Bungtown,
and a little later, North Town. When the Old Colony Rail-
road established a station there they unwittingly adopted
practically the old Pilgrim "Seaside," as "Plain Dealing"
meant a plain by the sea. The growth of business set in at a
very early day, and up to 1883, when the capital stock of the
company was increased to half a million of dollars, only forty-
four thousand dollars had been paid in, and all the remainder
of the half million had been furnished by the profits of the
company. In 1894 the capital was still further increased to
a million, all of the increase being furnished by the stockhold-
ers. To meet the growth of the factory business the original
water power was supplemented by steam engines in 1837, I^39»
1850, 1868, 1888, and 1900. The last two of these are of
1500 and 1600 horse power. In 1827 the sales of cordage
amounted to 601,023 pounds, and in 1899 to 19,597,644
pounds. In addition to the above, while the first lot of bind-
ing twine sold in 1882 amounted to 384,820 pounds, the sales

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 24 1

of the same in 1899 amounted to 27,905,981 pounds, and the
entire product of the factory is estimated to be about one-
seventh of the product of all the Cordage companies in the
United States. Of the large cables made by the Company I
have personal knowledge of one of fifteen or fifteen and a half
inches. About the year 1865, an English steamer, named, I
think, "Concordia," was wrecked on Cape Cod and bought by
Boston parties. The cable, to which I refer, was ordered for
the purpose of hauling her off shore. I was told by Osborne
Howes, one of the purchasers that within forty-eight hours af-
ter it was coiled on the beach the junk men cut it up and car-
ried it off. The steamer was got off and towed to Boston,
where she was lengthened and refitted for service.

I have said thus much concerning the Cordage Company for
the purpose of illustrating the sagacity, energy, good judgment
and integrity of Mr. Spooner, who was until his death, during
the career of the company, its agent, and after 1837, its treas-
urer. He did his business so unostentatiously, that I think
few of his fellow citizens realized the great work he was doing
in building up an industry which has done so much in pro-
moting the growth and welfare of Plymouth. Next to his
interest in the affairs of the company intrusted to his care,
was his interest in the anti-slavery cause. How, and exactly
when he enlisted in the cause, I never knew. His life in New
Orleans probably opened his eyes to the evils of the institution
of slavery, but I do not think that he entered the anti-slavery
ranks until after the visit of George Thompson to Massachu-
setts, and the Garrison mob in Boston in 1835. Among the
earliest in Plymouth to engage in the movement, according to
ray best recollections were, Lemuel Stephens, William Ste-
phens, Ichabod Morton, Edwin Morton, Ephraim Harlow,
Kendall Holmes, George Adams and Deacon Wm. Putnam
Ripley, and I think Johnson Davie and their families. Nearly
all of these, except the Ripleys, lived on "tother side," as it
was called, like 'Tautre cote" of Paris the other side of the
Seine, as our "tother side" is the other side of Town Brook.
The merchants, professional men, including ministers, and
the politicians in both the whig and democratic parties,
were either too timid to join the anti-slavery ranks,
or were decidedly hostile to the anti-slavery movement.

242 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

An anti-slavery meeting was held on the evening
of July 4, 1835, in the Robinson church, which was disturbed
by an incipient mob which contented itself with breaking a few
windows, and afterwards smearing with tar the dry goods
sign of Deacon Ripley. Though the Old Colony Memor-
ial contained a paid advertisement of the meeting, its col-
umns were silent concerning its doings and the disturbance.
It is of little consequence how or when Mr. Spooner became
interested in the movement. He became one of the most prom-
inent men in the state, supporting it, and undoubtedly fur-
nished to it material aid not exceeded in amount by the contri-
butions of any other in its ranks. He was a constant friend
and supporter of Garrison, Phillips, Quincy and Douglas, all
of whom frequently enjoyed the hospitalities of his home.

Mr. Spooner was widely known, especially by fellow travel-
lers on the railroad, as an expert and entertaining story teller,
and skilful in the art. He knew how to tell a story, omitting
details, careful never to say that he had a capital story, being
willing to leave its quality to the judgment of his listeners,
never laughing until he had finished, and then when his com-
panions began to laugh he would join with them as heartily
as if he had never told the story before. He told many stories
about his great uncle, Deacon Ephraim Spooner, which seem-
ed to amuse some persons, the humor of which I never could
see.

But he had a nearer kinsman, his own uncle, Thomas
Spooner, who was a man of both wit and humor, from whom
he must have acquired his own delicate sense of these quali-
ties. Thomas Spooner was at one time town treasurer, and
many years a constable. One evening he was called upon to
serve a precept, and while making his way in the dark through
a private yard he encountered a clothes line, and then a second
one which knocked off his hat. "By George," said he, "I
never knew before what the Bible meant by 'precept upon
precept ; line upon line.' " He was an ardent whig, and when
returning home one day after an absence of a couple of days,
he found posted on the town tree a notice for a democratic
meeting. "By thunder," said he, "can't I leave town twenty-
four hours without there being the devil to pay ?" and he pull-
ed the notice down.

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 243

Mr. Bourne Spooner, not only as occasion offered, repeated
stories which his tenacious memory had treasured up, but he
found satire and humor in the incidents of every day life,
which he often used to point a moral, as for instance, the case
of the old lady who had a husband somewhat addicted to pro*
fanity, and who when rebuked by a sister of the church then
attending revival meetings because she bestowed so much care
on her husband, who she said was a bad man, replied, "I know
sister, my husband is a very bad man, and has little to expect
in the next world, so I feel it my duty to do what I can f or
his comfort and happiness in this."

Mr. Spooner was a tender hearted man, especially towards
his workmen and their families. An instance of his tender
feelings once came under my own observation. The Cordage
Company did their banking business in Boston, discounting
once a month at the Old Colony Bank a note to obtain bills
for the monthly pay roll. During one of the financial panics
when money was almost impossible to obtain, he came one day
into the Plymouth Bank in despair. He said that he could
not get a dollar in the Old Colony Bank, and Mr. Dodd, his
Boston director, could not obtain a dollar in Boston. He had
put off the settlement of his payroll two or three times, and
he was afraid to go home and meet the disappointed looks of
his men, whose families were in absolute need of their wages.
As he said this, I noticed the tears trickling down his cheeks.
It so happened, either by good luck or good lookout, we had
for some time been confining our discounts to short paper,
and our maturities were keeping us well supplied with funds.
We gave him the money, charging him only 7 per cent, while
as the following incident will show, money was worth
more than double that rate. A day or two afterwards I met
on Water street, Boston, the President and Treasurer of a
large manufacturing concern in Taunton, who asked me if I
would let him have ten thousand dollars. I told him that I
would, and should charge him for it on a four months' note,
fifteen per cent. He turned on his heel and left me. An hour
after I met him in the National Bank of Redemption, and he
asked me if my offer held good. I told him it did, and the
loan was made then and there.

Mr. Spooner married in 1813, Hannah, daughter of Amasa
and Sarah (Taylor) Bartlett, and died July 21, 1870.

244 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

All through my boyhood there were two brothers living on
adjoining estates on the easterly side of Court street, Leavitt
Taylor Robbins and Nathan Bacon Robbins, sons of Charles
and Mary (Bacon) Robbins. The former lived in the house
now owned by Miss Elizabeth N. Perkins from the time of his
marriage in 1831, until his death, owning a large estate of
from fifteen to twenty acres extending from Court street to the
shore. He built a wharf and established a lumber yard about
1 83 1, which he carried on forty years or more, until his death,
and which was afterwards carried on by his son, Leavitt Tay-
lor Robbins, Jr., until his recent death. During that long
period it was carried on by father and son under the same
name seventy-five years, always with the highest credit and
probably longer known on the Kennebec and Penobscot than •
any other lumber yard in Massachusetts. Mr. Robbins, born
in I799,married in i83i,Lydia,daughter of Ephraim Fullerof
Kingston, and had Lydia Johnson, 1833, who married Noah P.
Burgess ; Elizabeth Fuller, 1834, who married Nathaniel Mor-
ton; Leavitt Taylor, 1837, who married Louisa A. Bradford,
and Mrs. Anna V. (Wright) Southgate, Lemuel Fuller, 1839,
Helen F., who married Edward G. Hedge, and Sarah B., and
died September 24, 1871. Nathan Bacon Robbins owned and
occupied the house now owned and occupied by Mrs. Fred-
erick N. Knapp, and was a shipmaster by profession, sailing
I believe, chiefly in the employ of John and James N. Sever
of Kingston. One of the ships commanded by him was the
Brookline. Born in 1797, he married in 1819, Lucia W.f
daughter of George Rider, and second in 1830, Lucia Ripley,
of Kingston, and died December 24, 1865.

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 245

, CHAPTER XXVI.

I trust that I may be pardoned if I speak of my brother,
Charles G. Davis, of whose early life, though only two years
have elapsed since his death, most of my readers know little
or nothing. The son of William Davis, Jr., and Joanna
(White) Davis, he was born May 30, 1820, in the house now
known as the Plymouth Rock House on Cole's Hill. After
receiving a common school education in Plymouth, he was
fitted for college, under the direction of Hon. John A. Shaw
of Bridgewater, and graduated at Harvard in 1840. He
studied law in the office of Jacob H. Loud of Plymouth, at
the Harvard Law school, and in the office of Hubbard and
Watts in Boston, and was admitted to the bar in Plymouth
at the August term of the Common Pleas Court in 1842, es-
tablishing himself in practice in Boston, where he remained
until 1853. During his nine years residence in Boston, he was
at various times in partnership with William H. Whitman,
George P. Sanger and Seth Webb. In 1848 he was one of the
prominent organizers of the Free Soil Party, and was a dele-
gate to the Buffalo Convention, which nominated Martin Van
Buren for President, and Charles Francis Adams for Vice
President.

In 185 1 he was tried before Benjamin F. Hallet, U. S. Com-
missioner, for complicity in the rescue of Shadrach, a fugitive
slave. The charge was that as he was entering the court
room, Shadrach was going out, and that he held the door in
such a way as to make the escape effectual. Though he was
acquitted, I never knew how much or how little, if at all, he
aided the negro in his flight. In 1853 Mr. Davis was a mem-
ber of the state constitutional convention, and in that year
changed his residence to Plymouth, and building a house, es-
tablished there his permanent home. In 1856 he was appoint-
ed a member of the State Board of Agriculture, and in the
same year chosen President of the Plymouth County Agricul-
tural Society, retaining the latter office until 1876. In 1859
he was chosen an overseer of Harvard University. In 1861

246 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

he was appointed by Gov. Andrew on a commission to propose
a plan for a State Agricultural College, and after the estab-
lishment of that institution, served as one of its trustees many
years. In 1862 he represented his town in the General Court,
and in the same year was appointed under the U. S. Revenue
law assessor for the first District, holding that office until
1869. In 1874 he was appointed Judge of the 3d District
Court, and remained on the bench until his death. He loved
bis native town, and was always recognized as a public spirit-
ed man, who would make a liberal response to every call aim-
ing at its welfare. He built Davis building in 1854, the brick
block at the corner of Railroad avenue in 1870, and was for
many years the largest individual holder of real estate in the
town. He married November 19, 1845, Hannah Stevenson,
daughter of Col. John B. Thomas and Mary (Le Baron)
Thomas, and has two children living, Joanna, wife of Richard
H. Morgan, and Charles S. Davis, a graduate at Harvard in
1880, and now practicing law in Plymouth.

As thirty-seven years have elapsed since the death of Rob-
ert B. Hall, I am inclined to think that three-quarters of my
readers know no more concerning him than that his widow
was until her recent death a much respected resident in Plym-
outh. Mr. Hall was the son of Charles and Catherine Hall,
and was born in Boston, January 12, 1812. He had not as far
as I know a collegiate education, but prepared for the Con-
gregational ministry at the Yale Divinity school. After leav-
ing the school he spent two years in Europe, where he grati-
fied his taste not only by literary pursuits, but also by the
study of art in its various forms. He served also during his
absence as an agent of the American Anti-Slavery Society.
In 1837, soon after his return, he was settled over the Third
Society in Plymouth, whose place of worship was on Pleasant
street, opposite Training Green. In that year he delivered an
address before the Pilgrim Society on the anniversary of the
Landing of the Pilgrims, and in 1839 on tne same occasion an
address before the Third church. In 1841 he delivered an ad-
dress at the dedication of Oak Grove cemetery.

In 1840, largely through his influence, the present church
on the north side of Town Square was built under the name
of the Church of the Pilgrimage, and a new society was
formed called the Society of the Pilgrimage.

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 247

In 1844 Mr. Hall became Episcopalian in faith, and at his
house on the 15th of November in that year, the present Epis-
copal Society was formed, and on the 3d of October, 1846, the
church on Russell street was consecrated with Theodore W.
Snow, rector, who had been chosen on the 13th of the pre-
vious April. At about that time Mr. Hall was called to St.
James' Episcopal church in Roxbury, where he remained sev-
eral years. In 1849 he returned to Plymouth, where he
preached for a time in the Robinson church, and soon after
built the house on the corner of Lothrop Place, which he made
his home until his death. In 1855 he joined the Know Noth-
ing movement, and was chosen State Senator, and in 1856 he
was chosen by the Know Nothings, member of Congress;
In 1858 on the termination of the Know Nothing party, he
was sent back to Congress by the Republicans, thus serving
two terms in Washington. After his retirement from public
life he devoted himself to literary pursuits, and in 1864 de-
livered the oration at the dedication of the Masonic building
in Boston on the corner of Tremont and Boylston streets.

Mr. Hall married in 1841 Abby Mitchell, daughter of Na-
thaniel Morton Davis, and died April 15, 1868.

I suppose that few of my readers know that Jonathan Walk-
er, the man with the branded hand, ever lived in PlymoutS.
About fifty years ago, or perhaps a little earlier, he lived in the
house now standing in what is called the Nook at the head)
waters of Hobb's Hole brook. I do not remember to have
ever seen him, but I recall the time when he was complained
of for shingling his house on the Sabbath. He was born in
Harvard, Mass., March 22, 1799, and at the age of seventeen
went to sea. When quite young he assisted Benjamin Lundy
in colonizing slaves in Mexico, and for a time lived with his
family in Florida. In 1844 he assisted four slaves to escape
by water, but was overtaken and captured with his companions
by a Revenue Cutter, which was sent in pursuit. He was car-
ried to Pensacola, and after trial for his offense was sentenced
to stand one hour in the pillory, to pay a fine of one hundred
and fifty dollars, and be branded on the hand with the letters
S. S., signifying slave stealer. It is creditable to Southern
humanity that a blacksmith refused to heat the instrument of
torture. He remained in prison eleven months in default of

248 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

payment of the fine, and was then by the aid of Northern
friends released. After his release he delivered lectures in
various Northern towns, and then settled down in Plymouth.
In 1863 he bought a farm in Lake Harbor, Michigan, and
carried on the business of raising fruit until his death, April
30, 1875. He left behind him in Plymouth a son John, whom
I knew very well, and whom it fell to me once to aid during
a pecuniary embarrassment. His father had neglected his
education, but he was a noble fellow in whose presence I al-
ways felt that I was in the presence of a man.

I think he was one of not more than twenty men whose per-
sonality during my long life has impressed me. He always
called me William, and I always called him John. I would
have trusted to him my life in any emergency, for I knew
that he would have risked his own to save the life of a fellow
man. He held a commission as pilot for some years, and in
appearance an ideal pilot he was. With his broad Scotch face,
almost buried in hair and whiskers, it was easy to imagine
him in his tarpaulin and oil clothes beating his pilot lugger
up channel in a heavy sea. About eight years ago he went to
Michigan to live with a sister on a farm which his father had
occupied, and a few months ago I heard of his death.

I have spoken of Joseph Bartlett, who lived on the corner
of Court street and Court square, but there was another
Joseph Bartlett of whom probably few of my readers have
ever heard. He was a man of diversified talents, of diversi-
fied traits of character, and led a diversified life. He was
author, poet, orator, lecturer, lawyer, merchant, gambler, pris-
oner for debt, and generally an adventurer. He was son of
Sylvanus and Martha (Wait) Bartlett, and was born in Plym-
outh in 1761. His father was a well to do merchant, who
owned real estate in the neighborhood of the present junction
of High and Russell streets. He had a sister, Sophia, who
married Benjamin Drew, the father of our late deceased friend,
Benjamin Drew, and I have always supposed that our friend
inherited his brilliant talents from his mother's side of the
house. Mr. Bartlett graduated at Harvard in 1782, and
studied law in Salem, and was recommended to be sworn as
attorney in 1788. Soon after the close of the revolution he
went to England, and in London, attracted by his eccentri-

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 249

cities and wit much attention. One evening at the theatre
during the performance of a play in which American soldiers
were caricatured as cobblers, tailors and tinkers, he stood up
in the pit and called for cheers for the army of cobblers, tailors
and tinkers who had defeated the British. The interference
so far from being resented, was taken in good part, and the
young Londoners took him into their companionship and in-
vited him to the clubs where he was for a time made much of.
He afterwards fell into gambling habits, and finally was im-
prisoned for debt. He wrote a play, and from the proceeds
of its sale obtained a release, after which for a short time he
appeared on the stage. After his return home he opened a
law office in Woburn, and painted it black, calling it "the
coffin" to attract notice. He afterwards removed to Cam-
bridge, and in 1799 delivered a poem before the Harvard Phi
Beta Kappa Society on "Physiognomy/' in which some of his
allusions, like the following, were believed to be personal :

"First on the list observe that woman's form,
Who looks a very monster in a storm.
Her skinny lips, her pointed nose behold,
And say if nature's marked her for a scold;
Observe her chin, her every feature trace,
And see the fury trembling in her face;
By nature made to mar the joys of life;
And damn that man who has her for a wife."

In 1823 he delivered a Fourth of July oration in Boston,
and recited a poem entitled, "The New Vicar of Bray." At
one time in his varied career he was a member of the Maine
legislature, and at another had a law office in Portsmouth, N.
H. In 1823 he published a collection of "Aphorisms on men,
manners, principles and things," and also an essay on "The
blessings of poverty," prefaced by the following lines:

I tell thee Poverty that you and I

Have friendly met together;

Thou art the soul of minstrelsy

In every kind of weather.

Through all life's journey thou hast not

From me an hour departed;

Thou never hast my track forgot,

Which proves thee most true hearted

I have two letters from Mr. Bartlett to my grandfather,
William Davis, soliciting aid, and one to my grandfather from

250 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

President Kirkland of Harvard University, inclosing thirteen
dollars contributed by a few Cambridge gentlemen with the
request that he would use it for Mr. Bartlett's benefit He
married Anna May, daughter of Thomas Witherell of Plym-
outh, and died in Boston, October 21, 1827.

Of Perez Morton, a Plymouth man, and one of the most
distinguished members of the Massachusetts bar in the latter
part of the eighteenth century, and the first half of the nine-
teenth, probably few of my Plymouth readers have ever
heard. He was son of Joseph and Amiah (Bullock) Morton
of Plymouth, and was born October 22, 1750. He graduated
at Harvard in 1771, and was recommended to be sworn as
attorney in 1774. In 1786 he was made a Barrister, and on
the 7th of September, 1810, he was appointed Attorney
General. At the time of the appointment of Mr. Mor-
ton as Attorney General, the office of Solicitor General
was occupied by Daniel Davis, who had been ap-
pointed January 20, 1802, under an act passed March 4,
1800, reviving the office which had been discontinued for a
time after the revolution. In 1821 it having been the general
feeling for some time that the two offices were unnecessary,
the legislature, while unwilling on account of the respect en-
tertained for their incumbents, to abolish either, passed an act
providing "that whenever the office of Attorney General or
Solicitor General shall become vacant by death, resignation 01
otherwise, the salary annexed to the office, which shall first
so become vacant as aforesaid, shall thenceforth cease and de-
termine." As neither death nor resignation occurred, an act
was passed March 14, 1832, to take effect June 1, abolishing
both offices and establishing the office of Attorney General
for the Commonwealth. On the 31st of May, therefore, 1832,
Mr. Morton went out of office, and James T. Austin was ap-
pointed under the new law, Attorney General of the Common-
wealth. Sarah Morton, the wife of Perez, was an author-
ess of some repute. She wrote a book entitled, "The power
of Sympathy," a copy of which is in the library of the Pil-
grim Society, which is claimed to have been the first American
novel. Mr. Morton died in Boston, October 14, 1837.

I cannot pass by Court Square without a notice of Mrs.
Nicolson's boarding house, which stood many years 00 the

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 25 1

north side of the Square. Thomas Nicholson, son of James,
came into possession of the house after the death of his father
in 1772. He married for a second wife about 1790, Hannah,
daughter of John Otis, and sister of Mrs. Grace Heyman God-
dard, already noticed as the mother of Mrs. Abraham Jack-
son. Thomas Nicolson was a shipmaster, and I believe was
for some time before his death in the United States Revenue
Service, and died on the island of Gaudaloupe, February 9,
1798.

He was also during the revolution commander of the pri-
vateer sloop America, carrying six swivels and seventy men,
owned by William Watson, Ephraim Spooner and others.
Capt. Nicolson had by his first wife Sarah Mayhew, nine
children : Sarah, 1771 ; Hannah, 1773 ; Polly, 1775 ; Elizabeth,
1777; Lucy Mayhew, 1778; Nancy, 1780; Thomas, 1782;
James, 1784, and Anna. Of these Hannah married John
Morong; Polly married John Allen of Salem, and Anna mar-
ried John D. Wilson of Salem. Lucy Mayhew died in Boston,
January 21, 1858. By his second wife, Hannah Otis, he had
Samuel, 1791, who married Sarah Brinley, and died in Boston,
January 6, 1866; Hannah Otis, 1793, who married William
Spooner; Daniel, 1796, who died March 6, 1815; Caroline,
1798, who married Edward Miller of Quincy.

The estate when Capt. Nicolson died extended from the
present yard of Mr. Hedge to the line of Mr. Bittinger, and
consisted of the main house and a range of outbuildings
which included a woodshed, chaise house, ice house and barn,
with a large garden in the rear. After Capt. Nicolson's death,
but precisely when I do not know, Mrs. Nicolson fitted up her
house as an inn, and called it the Old Colony House. The
Pilgrim House was the stage house, and Mrs. Nicolson's
house was the lawyer's house. The judges, however, sought
private lodgings, and I remember that Chief Justice Shaw al-
ways occupied a front parlor in the house opposite Court
square, which was the residence of Ichabod Shaw, where the
Methodist church now stands. Among the regular boarders
in the Old Colony House whom I remember were Samuel
Davis, Ebenezer G. Parker, cashier of the Old Colony Bank,
Gustavus Gilbert, attorney, Eliab Ward, student at law, Isaac
N. Stoddard and Hiram Fuller, teachers. During the sessions

252 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

of the court it was the gathering place of the lawyers who,
without railroad conveniences, made a week of it under Mrs.
Nicolson's roof. There might be found Charles J. Holmes of
Rochester, Seth Miller of Wareham, Zachariah Eddy of Mid-
dleboro, Williams Latham of Bridgewater, William Baylies and
Austin Packard of West Bridgewater, Welcome Young of
East Bridgewater, Kilborn Whitman of Pembroke, and Eben-
ezer Gay of Hingham. To these were sometimes added
James T. Austin, Attorney General, Franklin Dexter and
Rufus Choate. Timothy Coffin of New Bedford generally at-
tended the Plymouth court, and was sought for in many cases
on one side or the other to make the argument to the jury.
If he could find anybody to play a game of cards he would
play nearly all night, and come into court in the morning look-
ing as fresh as a rose. The house was a rambling one with
sleeping rooms arranged in such a way that it was difficult
to find them. There was one in particular through which it
was necessary for the occupants of the other rooms to pass.
This room was assigned on one occasion to Mr. Choate, whose
habit it was to retire early. In the morning when he appeared
at the breakfast table and was asked how he had slept, he an-
swered, "Very well, I thank you, considering I slept in the
highway." As the lawyers sat by the fire in the evening, Mr.
Eddy in a dressing gown, and Mr. Latham securing a seat
near the spittoon, occasionally some one would say, "Packard,
are we there?" To understand this question, a story must be
told. In the early days of the Old Colony Railroad, just after
what was called the Abington branch was built, the lawyers I
have named met at Bridgewater to take the train for Abing-
ton to meet the last train to Plymouth to attend the usual ses-
sion of the court. When the branch train reached East Bridge-
water, Packard, who thought he knew all about the road,
jumped up and said, "Warl guntlemen, here we ar," and they
all got out to find the train going on, and themselves in a
dreary station, on a cold and dark November night, seventeen
miles from Plymouth. There was only one thing to do, to hire
an omnibus, which they promptly did, and they reached their
destination about half past ten, cold, hungry and cross.
Hence the inquiry, "Packard, are we there?" All the gentle-
men named are dead, and were doubtless met by Packard on

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 253

the further shore with "Warl gentlemen, here we ar." I hope
he has not landed them at the wrong station.

In 1836 Mrs. Nicolson gave up the public house, and moved
to Boston to live with her daughter, Mrs. Miller, and died in
that city, June 22, 1844. The Old Colony House was kept
afterwards by Zaben Olney and William Randall, and after a
further occupation as a private residence by Moses Bates and
Theodore Drew, was sold in 1835 to Mary Howard Russell
and taken down.

On the south side of Court square on the corner of School
street, there lived until 1839 a worthy old man, who for some
years was stone blind. He was Joseph Barnes, the great-
grandfather of our townsman, bearing the same name. He
carried, extended out in front of him, a staff about eight feet
long, with which he tapped the sidewalk constantly, and di-
rected his steps without any other guide or support. It was
his privilege to live in days when bicycles, automobiles and
trolley cars had not been invented to endanger the lives of
even the far-seeing and wary. As I remember him he walked
alone through the various streets of the town, and if occasion-
al aid became necessary in avoiding some new obstruction,
both old and young were ready to lend it. His wife kept a
little candy shop, if so it may be called, in the front room on
the east side of the front door, and there children who thought
it too far to go to Nancy and Eliza's shop on Market street,
patronized her. It was a queer kind of a shop, showing as
its only furniture a bed and chairs, and looking glass and
table. Under the bed three or four spice boxes were placed
in a row, containing in tempting neatness assortments of
candy comprising the usual twisted parti-colored sticks, and
kisses and Salem Gibralters. How these last received their
name, and why their manufacture should have been confined
to Salem, I never knew, but there they were made, and there
they are made today, and if any of my young readers never
saw them, they had better induce their grocer to send for some
and keep them in stock. Their makers are welcome to this
gratuitous advertisement. Mr. Barnes died January 28, 1839,
and the house in which he lived was occupied some years
by Nathaniel Cobb Lanman, and finally removed to Lothrop
street, when Court square was widened in 1857.

254 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

CHAPTER XXVII.

Through all my boyhood Nathaniel Morton Davis occupied
the house on Court street, now owned by the Old Colony
Club, except for a year, when, while repairing the house, he
occupied for a year or more the house on Leyden street, which
his mother had occupied before her removal to Boston. The
house at that time had its front door on the southerly side
where an arch may now be seen in the front hall. On the west
side of the front door there was a good sized parlor, which
reached within about three feet of the street. What is now
the library, lapped far enough by the above parlor to admit
of a door from one to the other, and was the law office of Mr.
Davis, with an outside entrance north of the parlor above
mentioned.

Mr. Davis was the son of William and Rebecca Morton
Davis, and was born in Plymouth March 3, 1785. He gradu-
ated at Harvard in 1804, and after studying law with Judge
Joshua Thomas, was admitted to the bar in Plymouth. He
was appointed early in his career Judge Advocate, with the
rank of Major, which title he bore through life. In 1821 he
was appointed Chief Justice of the Court of Sessions, and
served until the court was abolished in 1828. He was at vari-
ous times representative and senator, and was a member of
the executive council from 1841 to 1843. He was a director
of the Plymouth Bank from 1826 to 1839, and from 1840 to
1S48, and President from 1840 until his death. He was a
man of commanding presence, an impressive speaker, and was
selected on several public occasions to act as presiding officer.
The first time I saw him in the President's chair was at a
whig county celebration on the Fourth of July, 1840, when
the chief address of the day was made by Robert C. Winthrop.
His speech and his toasts calling up the speakers were un-
usually happy. Martin Van Buren, who had succeeded An-
drew Jackson as President, and was a candidate for re-elec-
tion, had many times boasted of following in the footsteps of
his illustrious predecessor, and Mr. Davis gave as one of the
sentiments, "Martin Van Buren, he has followed so fast in the

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 255

footsteps of his illustrious predecessor, that he has accom-
plished his journey in half the time/'

Mr. Davis married, July 8, 1817, Harriet Lazell, daughter
of Judge Nahum Mitchell of East Bridgewater, and his chil-
dren were William, born May 12, 1818, who married Decem-
ber 2, 1849, Helen, daughter of John Russell ; Abby Mitchell,
born November 9, 1821, who married in 1841 Robot B. Hall,
and Elizabeth Bliss, born November 8, 1824, who married
Henry G. Andrews. Mr. Davis died at the United States
Hotel in Boston, July 29, 1848.

In 1849, William Davis, previous to his marriage, cut off
the westerly end of the house in question, and it was moved to
a lot on Court street, opposite the foot of Cushman street,
where it now stands the property of Charles B. Bartlett. I
have never known a more complete mutilation of a house than
that caused by the alteration to which I have referred. .

Before leaving Mr. Davis I must tell a story about his dog
Ponto, which illustrates the intelligence often found in the
canine race. He was an ordinary black and white cur, which,
as is often the case with favorite dogs, was equally a delight
to his master, and a nuisance to everybody else. He was in
the habit of following the family to church, and after being
kicked out by the sexton, he would slyly find his way in, and
going up the broad aisle, scratch at the family pew door. In
order to stop this habit, orders were given to keep him con-
fined to the house on Sundays, to which Ponto demurred.
After suffering confinement two Sundays he circumvented the
orders and through the first door or window which happen-
ed to be opened, every Sunday morning at the earliest oppor-
tunity he left the house and fled to the house of Nathaniel
Holmes, on School street, who did the family chores, and
there passed the day, returning home in the evening. He
knew when Sunday came by symptoms, which he easily dis-
covered, and while never going to the Holmes house at any
other time, he kept up his weekly visits for many months, until
sickness or accident ended his career.

Ponto reminds me of another dog which belonged to John
J. Russell, when he lived in the Cotton house, which stood
where Brewster street enters Court street. Mr. Russell bought
of Warren Douglas of Half Way Pond one of a litter of

256 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

bound pups with the agreement to take him when he became
old enough to be of use. When he thought it about time to
bring him home he went for him, and it being a rainy day he
held the pup by a chain between his feet beneath the boot
which excluded all sight of the road over which he had never
before travelled. At the end of a fortnight, thinking that
the pup had been chained to his kennel long enough to become
domesticated, he unfastened his chain with the intention of
giving him his breakfast. Preferring, however, freedom to
breakfast, the pup hopped over the fence, and was last seen
running up Court square. Mr. Russell, thinking he might
have found his way to Half Way Pond, drove there the next
day, and there was the pup. On comparing notes with Mr.
Douglas, it was found that the little fellow had travelled teg
miles in less than two hours. So much for the instinct of
Ponto and the hound pup. If we ask what instinct is, it might
be correct to say that it is the gift of God unimpaired by edu-
cation. The homing pigeon has it when she finds her way to
her distant nest. The Indian has it somewhat qualified by
civilization when he laughs at the white man who needs a
watch to show the lapse of time. The Christian has it, be-
yond the realm of reason, a divine teacher assuring
him of a life beyond the grave, a belief in which the device
of human education has done much to impair if not destroy.
But without further suggestion I submit these mysteries to
the investigation of my readers and pass on.

The Old Plymouth Bank building stood until recently where
the Russell building now stands. It was bought by the bank
at the time of its incorporation in 1803, and a brick addition
was erected at its southerly end for the accommodation of the
bank. William Goodwin, who had served as cashier from the
foundation of the bank, died July 17, 1825, and Nathaniel
Goodwin was chosen to succeed him. He moved at once into
the bank house, and continued to occupy it until his resigna-
tion as cashier in 1845, when he moved into the house on the
corner of Middle and Carver streets, where he died February
13, 1857. In early life he carried on the manufacture of rope
in Nantucket, and later in Beverly. He was the son of Gen-
eral Nathaniel Goodwin, and was born in 1770 in the house
on Leyden street, owned and occupied by his father, and after-

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 257

wards long kept as a hotel by John Howland Bradford, and
known as Bradford's tavern. He married in 1794 Lydia,
daughter of Nathaniel Gardner of Nantucket, and had seven
children, only four of whom I remember, Lydia Coffin, 1800,
who married Thomas Hedge; Albert Gardner, 1802, who mar-
ried 1831 Eliza Huzzey of Nantucket, and 1840 Eliza Ann,
daughter of Joseph Bartlett, and Nathaniel, 1809, who mar-
ried, 1833, Arabella, daughter of William White of New Bed-
ford. Mr. Goodwin was the last person in Plymouth to wear
a cue. Mrs. Goodwin was a quakeress, always wearing the
garb of her faith, which was further illustrated by her gentle
spirit and kindly words.

That part of the house used for a dwelling was occu-
pied at various times after Mr. Goodwin moved to Middle
street by Samuel Lanman, George F. Andrews, and Frank
A. Johnson, the last of whom kept a public house under the
name of the Winslow House. The old banking room was
used by Daniel J. Jane and Samuel Merriam, shoe manufac-
turers; Charles F. Hathaway, for a general store; Joseph P.
Brown, cabinet maker, and Frank A. Johnson in connection
with his hotel. It is only necessary to say further in con-
nection with the old bank building that it was taken down
and the Russell building erected on its site in 1892.

Daniel J. Lane manufactured one hundred thousand pairs
of boots and shoes annually, and gave employment to about
one hundred and sixty hands. There were other manufac-
turers of shoes about the same time, of whom it will be well
to speak : S. Blake & Co., who made one hundred and twenty
thousand pairs, employing about two hundred hands, having
their headquarters in Leyden hall building; John Churchill,
Benjamin Bramhall, William Morey, Henry Mills and Na-
thaniel Cobb Lanman, in whose shop on Allerton street Wil-
liam L. Douglas was a workman.

George Gustavus Dyer came to Plymouth with Mr. Blake
from Abington, and after serving as bookkeeper for his com-
pany, was elected cashier of the Old Colony Bank. Mr. Dyer
was the son of Christopher and Mary (Porter) Dyer of
Abington, and married in 1852 Mary Ann Bartlett, daughter
of Schuyler Sampson. After some years' service as cashier of
the Old Colony Bank, he was chosen President, and died
January 9, 1891.

258 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

The shoe business in the days to which I have referred was
conducted very differently from the methods in vogue today.
The headquarters not necessarily extensive, were used for the
reception of stock, the cutting of the leather, the shipment of
shoes and the business office. When the leather was cut shoe-
makers would call periodically for packages of uppers, and
linings and heels, and making the shoes at home would bring
them to the office and carrv home a new supply. They would
furnish their own tools and thread and nails and pegs, and
consequently the need existed of local stores, such as that
which was kept on Main street by Harrison Finney for shoe
kit and findings. These shoemakers did their work at home,
and there was scarcely a house in the smaller towns which
did not have its small shop on the premises where the cut ma-
terial was converted into shoes for the more or less distant
manufacturer. In consequence of the change above men-
tioned, the local kit stores were abandoned, and there was a
gradual flow of population from the farming towns where the
little workshops were located to the large towns, Abington,
Brockton, Rockland, Plymouth and Whitman, where the fac-
tories were built. This is one of the causes of the falling off
of population in the smaller towns, and of the rapid growth
of the larger ones. There are indications now of a reflex tide,
as a result of the facilities afforded by trolley cars for work-
men to seek distant homes where the cost of living is moder-
ate, and where in dull seasons farming can be carried on with
profit.

The building which stood on the corner of Court and North
streets, which was taken down and replaced by the Howland
building in 1888, was occupied as long ago as I can remember
by Dr. Rossiter Cotton. He was the son of John and Hannah
(Sturtevant) Cotton, and was born in 1758. He married in
1783 Priscilla, daughter of Thomas Jackson, and had nine
children, of whom I only remember two, Charles, born in 1788,
and Rowland Edwin, born in 1802.

Dr. Cotton practiced medicine in Plymouth about twenty
years, and retired from his profession in 1807. He seems to
have inherited the right to hold county offices. His grand-
father, Josiah Cotton, was Register of Deeds and County
Treasurer from 1713 to 1756; his father, John Cotton, held

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 259

both offices from 1756 to 1789, and he held the same offices
from 1789 to his death, August 12, 1837. His son, Rowland
Edwin, continued in the office of Register from 1837 to 1846.
Thus the office of Register was held in the family through
four generations, one hundred and thirty-three years, and the
office of Treasurer through three generations, one hundred
and twenty-four years. Dr. Cotton was an antiquarian, and I
find on the records many of his memoranda and plans, which
aid materially in elucidating matters which without them it
would have been difficult to understand. His son, Charles
Cotton, graduated at Harvard in 1808, and settled as a phy-
sician in Newport, where he married a Miss Northam, and
had a family of children, of whom I only remember four, Ros-
siter, Thomas, Charles and Sophia. He removed to Plymouth
in 183 1, occupying the house under consideration, where he
practised until his father's death in 1837, when he returned
to Newport, where he died. The three boys attended the
high school with me, and must have been all within two years
of my age. I remember two incidents of our school days, with
which they are associated. I have referred in a former chap-
ter to the rule, while Mr. William H. Lord was the teacher,
for each boy to repeat at the opening of the school in the
morning a verse from the bible. One day Rossiter received a
flogging for some offense, and the next morning he repeated
in his turn, "For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth.,, The
other incident occurred while Mr. Isaac N. Stoddard was
teacher. Dr. Cotton thought his son Charles had been either
unjustly or too severely whipped, so arming himself with a
whip he went to Mrs. Nicolson's hotel where Mr. Stoddard
boarded, with the intention of flogging him. But he reckoned
without his host, and when he .raised his whip, Mr. Stoddard,
seizing him by the collar, laid him on the floor, and taking his
whip away sent him home.

In 1833 scarlet fever prevailed extensively in Plymouth,
and was very fatal. In a population of 5,000 the number of
deaths during the year was one hundred and sixty-seven, of
which sixty-seven were of children under ten years of age.
Taking, the population of Plymouth in 1904 of 11,118, and
the number of deaths in that year, one hundred and fifty-seven,
as a basis, the normal number of deaths in the population of

260 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

five thousand in 1833, would have been less than seventy. I
remember that a daughter of Dr. Charles Cotton, either So-
phia or another whose name I do not recall, died of the pre-
vailing disease, and that I was one of the pall bearers at her
funeral. It was the invariable custom in those days, never
varied from, to have pall bearers for old and young, and in
cases of funerals of children, Clement Bates, the sexton,
would call at the High school and ask for a detail of six boys
for service at one or more of the funerals on that day. As
well as I can remember, no precautions were taken to prevent
the spread of the contagion, and funerals were attended as
usual, and no quarantine was established. I have no doubt
that during the visitation of the sickness I served as pall
bearer at least a dozen times.

Some years later I narrowly escaped serious inconvenience
arising from municipal precautions against contagious diseases.
In February, 1857, I had a schooner in the West India trade,
and when after her departure from Boston in the early part
of that month I thought her well on her way towards her des-
tination, I received a telegram from Thomas Everett Cornish,
her master, that she had been caught by the ice in the bay soon
after leaving Boston, and driven by the prevailing northwest
gales into Truro Bay, where she was in the ice jam a week,
during which she had received damages which she was now
repairing in Provincetown. I at once drove to Sandwich, and
taking the cars for Yarmouth, then the terminus of the Cape
Cod Railroad, drove to Truro, reaching there about midnight.
The next morning I hired a conveyance to Provincetown,
reaching there for dinner. After dinner I boarded the schooner,
where carpenters were at work getting out new stanchions
for the damaged bulwarks. While talking in the cabin with
Capt. Cornish, who was bald, and had taken off his hat, I
noticed some pustules on his scalp which I saw at once were
the pustules of varioloid. Fearing that he might become sick
and would require a substitute for the voyage, I called on
Dr. Stone, who fortunately was an old friend, and took him
to see the Captain, whom he at once declared suffering from
a mild attack of varioloid, which, however, would not prevent
his prosecution of the voyage. He said that he was the port
physician, and that it would be his duty to report the case

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 26 1

to the board of health. Fortunately I had said nothing at the
hotel concerning my business, or my connection with the
schooner, and I exacted a promise from Dr. Stone to say noth-
ing about me. Not long after the departure of the Doctor
we heard while sitting in the cabin a hail from the head of
the wharf commanding the captain to haul at once into the
stream and have no communication with the shore. A watch-
man was placed at the head of the wharf by the board of
health, and I began to wonder how I was to escape a quaran-
tine. I waited until after dark and then giving the captain
directions to proceed to Boston with the first favorable wind,
I went ashore, and sneaking up behind a store house with
only the cap log of the wharf to walk on, I found an opening
between two buildings about four feet wide, and came out on
the street unobserved. As I walked to the hotel I found the
town in a panic, and groups were standing here and there dis-
cussing the situation. I spoke to no one but on reaching the
hotel gave orders to be called to take the six o'clock mail
chaise, and went to bed. At six o'clock I was off and reached
home the same day. It was eight days before my vessel was
able to reach Boston, and thus I narrowly escaped a pro-
longed confinement on board, and the watchfulness of the Pro-
vincetown board of health. In view of my experience I advise
my readers in visiting a town, to follow my example, and say
nothing and keep open the avenues of retreat.

After the death of Dr. Rossiter Cotton in 1837, and the
return of his son to Newport, the house in question was kept
as a hotel named the Mansion House for some years by James
G. Gleason, succeeded by Benjamin H. Crandon and N. M.
Perry. In still later years the post office occupied the corner
room down stairs for a time, and the Custom House a room
upstairs, until finally the whole upper part of the building and
the northerly and easterly part below were occupied by news-
paper offices, and the corner by Charles P. Morse for a drug
store, until the building was taken down in 1888. Since the
mention of N. M. Perry in a previous chapter, I have learned
that he was a native Qi Holliston.

There are several estates on the west side of Court street,
whose occupants have not been noticed. Opposite the head
of North street there was in my youth the Lothrop estate, on

262 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

which a house stood, which was occupied by Dr. Nathaniel
Lothrop, until his death, October 10, 1828. Dr. Lothrop was
the son of Isaac and Priscilla (Thomas) (Watson) Lothrop,
and was born in the house in question in 1737. His mother
married in 1758, Noah Hobart of Fairfield, Connecticut, who
had a daughter Ellen by a previous wife. This daughter,
Ellen Hobart, married Nathaniel Lothrop, and thus Nathaniel
Lothrop married his mother's step-daughter, and Ellen Ho-
bart married her father's step-son. I leave my readers to de-
termine the relationship between them. In 1831 the Lothrop
house was taken down, and while its demolition was going
on, I a boy of nine years of age, saw quantities of papers
thrown out of the garret windows, and picking up many of
them carried them home. I found them on examination to be
official papers with autographs bearing date from 1675 to 1700.
These I arranged in an album, and have recently presented
them to the Pilgrim Society. In 1832 the northerly part of
the lot was sold to Jacob H. Loud, who built the house now
owned and occupied by Mrs. Francis B. Davis.

The southerly part of the lot was sold in 1839 to Nathaniel
Russell, Jr., who built the house now occupied by CoL Wil-
liam P. Stoddard, and occupied it until his father's death in
1852, when he moved into the brick house on the corner of
Court Square, which had been his father's home. At his
removal the house was left furnished, and was occupied during
the summer of 1853 by Richard Warren and family of New
York. From the autumn of 1853 to the autumn of 1854, the
house was occupied by myself, and there in the summer of
1854 my oldest child was born. Not long after I left the
house, it was occupied by Rev. George S. Ball, during his pas-
torate as colleague of Rev. Dr. Kendall. In 1857 the house
was sold to Jeremiah Farris, whose son-in-law, Col. Stoddard,
now occupies it.

Mr. Russell was as has been before stated, the son of Na-
thaniel and Martha (LeBaron) Russell, and was born in
Bridgewater, December 18, 1801. He graduated at Harvard
in 1820, and married, June 25, 1827, Catherine Elizabeth,
daughter of Daniel Robert and Betsey Hayward (Thacher)
Elliott of Savannah, Georgia, and died February 16, 1875.
Until 1837 he was associated with his father in the manage-

OP AN OCTOGENARIAN. 263

ment of the iron industries belonging to the firm of N. Russell
& Co., composed of Nathaniel Russell, William Davis and
Barnabas Hedge. After the retirement of the Davis and
Hedge interests from the firm, Mr. Russell became a member
of the firm of N. Russell & Co., and so continued until the
death of his father, October 21, 1852, after which he continued
the business until the sale of the Summer street works in 1866
to the Robinson Iron Co.

During the exciting period of anti-masonry which extended
from 1828 to 1835, an anti-masonic political party sprang up
in many of the Northern states, and candidates were gener-
ally nominated for State and National offices. The party had
its origin in the belief that William Morgan of Batavia, New
York, a former mason, who was reported to intend publishing
the secrets of the order of free masons, had been kidnapped
and drowned in Lake Ontario. It was believed that the ma-
sonic oath disqualified those in the higher degrees from serv-
ing as jurors in cases where members of the same degrees
were parties. The anti-masonic party originated in New York
in 1828, and in 1830 Francis Granger, its candidate for Gov-
ernor, received 128,000 votes. In 183 1 a National Anti-ma-
sonic convention nominated William Wirt of Maryland, and
Amos Ellmaker of Pennsylvania, for President and Vice-
President. Vermont was the, only state which threw its elec-
toral vote for the anti-masonic candidates. The anti-masonic
excitement reached Plymouth, and for one or more years Mr.
Russell was chosen a member of the legislature on the anti-
masonic ticket. I am not a mason, but as a somewhat close
observer of public affairs for nearly seventy years, and many
times a successful candidate for public office, I feel bound to
say that I have never suspected any masonic participation
either collectively or individually in the selection of nominees
to office, or the election of candidates.

In 1840 after the death of Barnabas Hedge, Mr. Russell was
chosen to succeed him as President of the Plymouth Institu-
tion for Savings, which was incorporated in 1828, and con-
tinued in office until his death. In 1847, during his incum-
bency, the name of the institution was changed to the Plym-
outh Savings Bank.

264 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

CHAPTER XXVIII.

The house in North street occupied by Dr. Brown, stands on
the site of a house, which in my youth, was owned and occu-
pied by Stephen Marcy. The old house was during the revo-
lution kept as an Inn by Thomas Southworth Howland, and
there on December 22, 1769, the Old Colony Club for the first
time celebrated the anniversary of the landing of the Pilgrims.
On that occasion at half-past two a dinner composed of the
following dishes was served : "A large baked Indian whortle-
berry pudding, a dish of sauquetach, a dish of clams, a dish of
oysters, and a dish of cod fish, a haunch of venison, a dish of
sea fowl, a dish of frost fish and eels, an apple pie, a course of
cranberry tarts and cheese."

The pudding alone preceded the meat, and the dessert was
as now the last course. This custom went out before my day,
but it was no more strange than that now in vogue, of begin-
ning a breakfast with fruit and oatmeal.

I remember the house well with a front door near its west-
erly end, and an office door near its easterly end opening into
a room which in its last days was occupied by Dr. Robert
Capen. In 1833 Jacob Covington bought the estate and built
the house now standing.

The Covington family was not one of the old Plymouth
families. Thomas Covington came to Plymouth a few years
before the revolution, and married in 1771 Sarah, daughter of
Joseph Tribble. Jacob Covington, son of Thomas, was no
doubt a shipmaster in early life. He was evidently trained in
a business school, and was repeatedly placed in positions of
trust by his fellow-citizens. He was the first President of the
Old Colony Insurance Company, and of the Old Colony Bank,
holding both positions until his death. He was among the
first to enter the business of the whale fishery, and was among
its most energetic and competent managers. The enterprise
of building Long Wharf, and putting the steamboat General
Lafayette on the line between Plymouth and Boston, was
chiefly due to him and James Bartlett. He married in 1816,
Patty, daughter of Gideon Holbrook, and had Elam, 1817,

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 265

who died in California; Mary Holbrook, 1820, who died in
East Orange ; Martha Ann, 1822, who died in Plymouth ; Ed-
win, 1825, who died in Boston; Harriet, 1827, who died in
Plymouth; Helen, 1830, still living; Jacob, 1832, who died in
Providence, and Leonard, 1834, who died in Dorchester.

Mary Holbrook Covington married George H. Bates, a na-
tive of Farmington, Maine, and the wife of Rev. Dr. Mann,
the present rector of Trinity church in Boston, is her grand-
daughter. Capt. Covington died May 28, 1835, at the age of
forty-four. After the death of Capt. Covington the house in
question came into the occupancy of Josiah Robbins, who has
already been noticed, and later of Thomas Prince, who occu-
pied it as a boarding house. The next occupant was Peter
Holmes, who was the son of Peter and Sally (Harlow)
Holmes, and was born in 1804. Mr. Holmes was engaged
many years in Boston in the cork manufacture, returning to
Plymouth and becoming the owner of the house under con-
sideration. He died October 14, 1880, and the house came
into the possession of Nathaniel Morton in 1881, who owned
and occupied it until Dr. W. G. Brown not many years since
came into its possession. Mr. Morton moved into a new house
which he built on Union street, and died July 18, 1902, at the
age of seventy-one years, one month and twenty-one days.

The lot next below the Covington house was all through
my boyhood, as late as 1830, an outlying barn yard, belonging
to Henry Warren, who lived on the corner of North street.
I remember well the large barn on the rear of the lot, and the
extensive hog stye and hog yard on its easterly side. In 1830
the widow of Henry Warren sold the lot to Rev. Frederick
Freeman, who built the house now occupied by Dr. Helen
Pierce. Mr. Freeman was descended from early Plymouth
Colony ancestors, who for many generations lived in Sandwich,
where Mr. Freeman's grandfather was born. His father,
George W. Freeman, settled in North Carolina and married
Ann Yates Ghobson, and was for a time an instructor in Ra-
leigh, where he became rector of Christ Church, later accept-
ing the position of Rector of Emanuel Chiirch in Newcastle,
Delaware. He received in 1839 the degree of Doctor of
Divinity from the University of North Carolina, and October
26, 1844, was consecrated Bishop of the southwestern diocese,

266 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

including Texas, Arkansas and the Indian Territory. He died
at Little Rock, Arkansas, April 29, 1858.

Rev. Frederick Freeman, son of George Ward and Ann
Yates (Ghobson) Freeman, was born in Raleigh, December
l> l799> and was there ordained as an evangelist. He was
settled in 1824 over the Third Church of Plymouth, whose
place of worship was on the corner of Pleasant and Franklin
streets, and built the house in question in 1830. In 1830 some
disaffection arose in his church, which resulted in the secession
of a considerable number of its members, and the establish-
ment of the Robinson Congregational church in 1831, and the
erection of its place of worship on the corner of Pleasant
street, and a street which has since been laid out and named
Robinson street. No hint is given so far as I know by any
historian as to the cause of the dissension in the church, but
there are reasons to believe that, brought up in the Episcopal
church, he was never a full fledged Calvinist, and that the
secession above referred to and his final resignation in 1833
were due to this fact. The visit of his father to Plymouth in
1832, and his holding an Episcopal service for only the second
time in the history of the town, tends to confirm this view of
the case. My impression is very strong that sooner or later
after he left Plymouth he became a member in full standing
of the Episcopal church. He afterwards became a citizen of
Sandwich, his ancestral town, and devoted some years to the
preparation and publication of a history of Cape Cod, which
is a valuable contribution to Old Colony Historical literature.
I have a distinct recollection of his personality, a strongly
built man with black hair and a Websterian type of head and
face, who could not pass in a crowd without observation. He
married December 26, 1821, Elizabeth, daughter of George
Nichols of Raleigh, who died in Plymouth March 12, 1833.
He married second, April 20, 1834, Hannah, daughter of
Frederick W. Wolcott of Litchfield, Conn., and third, Novem-
ber, 1841, Isabella, daughter of Hartwell Williams of Au-
gusta, Maine, but I do not know the date of his death. A
sister of his married Weston R. Gales, mayor of Raleigh, and
hence the name of our late townsman, Weston Gales Freeman
of Summer street.

In 1833 Mr. Freeman sold the house to Daniel Jackson,

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 267

who has already been noticed in these memories. After the
death of Mr. Jackson and the removal of his widow to Boston,
Or. Alexander Jackson became the occupant of the house in
i860, and was succeeded by Dr. Edgar D. Hill in 1880, whose
occupancy last year gave way to that of Dr. Pierce, the present
occupant.

Dr. Alexander Jackson was a descendant in the fifth gener-
ation from John Jackson, who came from England and died
in 1731. He was the son of Isaac and Sarah (Thomas) Jack-
son, and was born in Winthrop, Maine, May 18, 1819. His
father moved to Boston when he was a boy, and Alexander
was educated at the Boston Latin School, where he fitted for
college. He graduated at Amherst in 1840, and took his
medical degree from the Harvard Medical School in 1843,
having been associated during his three years' course with the
Boston Dispensary, and the Boston Eye and Ear Infirmary.
Not long after receiving his degree he began the practice of
his profession in Chiltonville, where he remained until Octo-
ber, 1858, when he moved to Main street, Plymouth, and oc-
cupied the house where the Plymouth Savings Bank now
stands. In May, i860, he moved to the house under consid-
eration on North street, which he occupied until October,
1880, when he bought the house on Court street, now occupied
by Father Buckley. In October, 1890, he retired from profes-
sional business, and moved to Boston. He married, June 14,
1849, Cordelia A., daughter of Nathaniel Reeves of Wayland,
and had Isaac, 1850, who married Elizabeth, daughter of Ed-
ward Parrish of Philadelphia; Alexander, 1853, who married
Abby Warren, daughter of William T. Davis of Plymouth;
and Nathaniel Reeves, 1857, who married Hannah M., widow
of George W. Brown, and daughter of Lyman Shaw. Dr.
Jackson died in Boston, December 12, 1901.

Passing now to the house of Arthur Lord on the lower
corner of Rope Walk lane, as it was called, its occupant in
my boyhood was Mrs. William Sturtevant, the widow of Wil-
liam Sturtevant, who died December 15, 1819. She was the
daughter of Benjamin and Jane (Sturtevant) Warren, and
was born in Plymouth in 1769, and died December 5, 1838.
Her husband was the son of William and Jemima (Shaw)
Sturtevant, and was born in that part of Plympton, which is

268 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

now Carver, in 1761. I have no means of learning what his
business was, as I am unable to associate him with any enter-
prise, industry or profession. He was a member of the Board
of Selectmen in 181 7, but I find him in no other office. The
inscription on his gravestone calls him William Sturtevant,
Esq., and as it is certain that he was not a shipmaster or a
lawyer, I am inclined to the opinion that he was a merchant,
and like George Watson, who died in 1800, and William Jack-
son, who died in 1837, was called Esquire. Mr. Sturtevant
was married in 1791, and had the following children, who sur-
vived infancy: Jane, 1794; Hannah, 1796; Sarah, 1799; Lucy,
1802 ; Rebecca W., 1805 ; and William, 1809. Hannah married
Thomas J. Lobdell, a banker in Boston and died October 3,
1818 ; William was for a time a partner with William S. Rus-
sell in the dry goods jobbing business in Central street, Bos-
ton, and later a stock broker; Sarah died July 1, 1833; Lucy
died August 7, 1807, and Jane died November 8, 1832. Re-
becca W. married !n 183 1 Rev. Josiah Moore of Duxbury, and
died April 7, 1838. Mrs. Moore makes the tenth Plymouth
lady whom I remember who married husbands who came to
the town to teach school. These were Nathaniel Bradstreet,
who married Anna Crombie; Charles Burton, who married
Sarah Stephens; George Washington Hosmer, who married
Hannah Poor Kendall ; William H. Lord, who married Persis
Kendall; William Parsons Lunt, who married Ellen Hobart
Hedge; Josiah Moore, who married Rebecca W. Sturtevant;
Horace H. Rolfe, who married Mary T. Marcy; Benjamin
Shurtleff, who married Sally Shaw, Isaac Nelson Stoddard,
who married Martha Thomas, and William Whiting, who
married Lydia Cushing Russell. Another might have
been added to the list if a letter of which I was the innocent
bearer, had received a favorable reply. I had no right to
know the contents of the letter, but little pitchers have great
ears, and mine were uncommonly great when I overheard the
letter discussed. The marriage of another teacher, Charles
Field to Elizabeth Hayward, was prevented by his death, Au-
gust 22, 1838.

In 1839 the house in question was sold to Dr. Timothy Gor-
don, who occupied it until his death. Dr. Gordon came to
Plymouth in 1837, but where he lived until he moved into the

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. . 269

Sturtevant house, I am not able to say. His ancestor, Alex-
ander Gordon, a Scotchman, came to New England in 1651,
and settled in New Hampshire. The Doctor was the son of
Timothy and Lydia Whitmore Gordon, and was born in New-
bury, N. H., March 10, 1795, and made several voyages as su-
percargo.

In 1823 he entered the office of his brother William in
Hingham, and completed his studies at the Bowdoin College
medical school, where he received a degree in 1825, and first
settled in Weymouth. In 1837 he came to Plymouth, and in
1839 moved into the house in question. He was bold and suc-
cessful as a practitioner, and skilful as a surgeon. For many
years he was one of the chief supporters of the Third Church,
and a liberal contributor to its funds, and both he and his wife
made large gifts for the support of foreign missions. He was
a trustee of the Pilgrim Society, and Vice President from 1872
to 1877; a Director of the Plymouth Bank and Plymouth
National Bank from 1845 t0 l&77> and the recipient of the
degree of Master of Arts from Amherst College in
1868. He married May 12, 1825, Jane Binney, daugh-
ter of Solomon and Sarah Jones, and had two child-
ren, Solomon Jones, September 21, 1826, and Timothy,
April 19, 1836, the latter of whom died young. Dr. Gordon
was a shrewd man, and would have made a good detective, as
the following incident shows. He believed that the methods
pursued in New York and Boston in detecting criminals by the
aid of newspaper reporters was like hunting ducks with a
brass band, and acted accordingly. He had a famous peach
tree in his garden laden with luscious fruit, of which one night
he was robbed. Neither he nor his wife mentioned the loss
even to their servant, and no one knew of the robbery besides
themselves and the thief. One day as the Doctor was sweep-
ing his sidewalk a man came along and entered into conversa-
tion. Just as he turned to leave he said, "by the way, Doctor,
did you ever find out who stole your peaches." "Yes, you ras-
cal," the Doctor replied. "You stole them, and if you don't
pay me five dollars instantly I will have you put in jail." The
man confessed at once, and paid the money "down.

Solomon Jones Gordon, the son of Dr. Gordon, was born
in Weymouth, September 24, 1826, and graduated at Harvard

270 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

in 1847. He studied law with Jacob H. Loud in Plymouth,
and in the Harvard Law School, and was admitted to the Suf-
folk bar October 18, 1850. He soon after became associated
with Orlando B. Potter, who was interested in sewing machine
patents, and removed his office to New York, where he accum-
ulated a handsome fortune. He matried Rebecca, daughter
of David Ames of Springfield, in which city he made his home
until his death in 1890.

After Dr. Gordon, the house under consideration was suc-
cessively occupied by Rev. A. H. Sweetser, pastor of the Uni-
versalist Society, and by Dr. Parker, and the last occupant be-
fore Mr. Lord, its present occupant, was Dr. Warren Pierce,

Perhaps I ought to offer an excuse, for the continuance of
these personal reminiscences which may have become weari-
some to some of my readers. There is a legend that myriads
of sombre birds have periodically flown from the Black Sea to
the beautiful sea of Marmora, and after hovering over the cy-
press shades of the cemetery at Scutari have retraced their
flight without food or drink, never touching the earth. The
Turks are said to believe that they are condemned souls denied
the peaceful quiet of the grave, visiting the tombs of others. I
trust that my wanderings among the scenes of the past will not
be attributed to the restlessness of a condemned soul, but rath-
er to a love of my native town, and of those in whose footsteps
I am daily walking, and in whose vacant homes I recall blessed
memories.

The house on North street, now owned by John Russell, the
occupants of which have been only incidentally alluded to, was
built by Samuel Jackson soon after the revolution and passed
from him to John Russell, who married his daughter Mary.
From John Russell it passed to his son, John, who owned and
occupied it through my boyhood until his death in 1857, from
whom after his widow's death it passed to his son, John Jack-
son Russell, the father of the present owner. John Russell,
whom I remember as the occupant of the house, was the son of
John and Mary (Jackson) Russell, and was born in 1786. In
early life he followed the sea, and soon became master. He
sailed some years in the employ of my grandfather, Wm. Dav-
is, and I have seen many letters f rom him in various ports in
the North of Europe, which show him to have been a skilful

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 2J\

navigator, and an intelligent, shrewd business man. He gave
up the sea before my day, and jointly with Thomas Davis of
Plymouth, and Wm. Perkins and Sydney Bartlett of Boston,
owned the ships Massasoit, Sydney, Granada and Hampden, of
which he was manager. As far as I know his masters were
Robert Cowen, Nathaniel Spooner, Wm. Sylvester, and Henry
Whiting, the latter making a single voyage to California in the
Hampden in 1849. Not I011? a^ter giving UP *he sea he became
interested in town affairs, and could always be relied on to op-
pose extravagant measures. He was a member of the Board
of Selectmen from 1841 to 1844 inclusive, and in the years
1846, 1851, 1853 and 1854. He was also one of the corpora-
tors of the Plymouth Cordage Company in 1824, and a direc-
tor I think until his death. It was during his service as ship-
master that the political lines began to be drawn between the
advocates and opponents of a protective tariff, the manufactur-
ers asking for protection, and the ship owners opposing any
measures tending to check importations. His attitude on this
question carried him into the ranks of the Democratic party a
constant opponent of a tariff which, drawn chiefly for protec-
tion purposes, he believed to be unconstitutional. In 1844 the
ship Hampden was in New Orleans loading cotton for Amster-
dam, and either for the benefit of his health or the relief of Capt.
Cowen, he concluded to take command of her for the voyage.
Sending for his son John, who was teaching school in Barn-
stable to be his companion, they joined the ship and made the
voyage to Amsterdam and back to Boston or New York, I
think with a load of iron.

Captain Russell married in 1816 Deborah, daughter of Na-
thaniel and Mary (Holmes) Spooner, and had Mary Spooner,
who married James T. Hodge, John Jackson, Helen, who mar-
ried Wm. Davis and Wm. H. Whitman, and Laura. He died
February 6, 1857.

John Jackson Russell, son of the above, who became the
next occupant of the house in question, was born July 27, 1823,
and graduated at Harvard in 1843. After teaching school in
Barnstable and making a voyage to Amsterdam with his father
in the ship Hampden in 1844, he studied law with Jacob H.
Loud in Plymouth, and Allen Crocker Spooner in Boston, and
was admitted to the Suffolk bar in 1848. Returning to Plym-

2fJ2 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

otith in 1850, after practising law for a time, he was appointed
Assistant Treasurer of the Plymouth Savings Bank, and after
the death of Allen Danforth in 1872 treasurer, which position
he held until his death. He was also a director of the Plym-
outh National Bank, and in 1878, a short time its President.
He married in 1855 Mary A., daughter of Allen Danforth, and
had Helen, 1857, John, i860, and Lydia, 1863. He died No-
vember 10, 1897. The house in question in my judgment il-
lustrates those admirable qualities in architecture, symmetry
and proportion, which are rarely found in the works of ar-
chitects of the present day. It illustrates also the importance
of retaining the original color of a house intended by the ar-
chitect to be built of brick in order to preserve its symmetry, for
it must be apparent that since the house was painted red the
symmetry has been restored, which a light color had previously
disturbed.

Until within five or six years a house stood on the easterly
side of the Russell house, which during my boyhood was oc-
cupied by Daniel Jackson until 1834, and by Isaac Tribble until
1846, both of whom have already been noticed. In 1846 it
was bought by Anthony Morse, who occupied it until his death.
Mr. Morse was born in Gloucester in 1795, and was the son of
Humphrey and Lydia (Parsons) Morse of that city. He came
to Plymouth when a young man, and learned the trade of rope
making, working a number of years in the rope walk extend-
ing from the gardens of the North street houses along the rear
of the Court street lots to Howland street, and afterwards in
the works of the Robbins Cordage Company. At a later time
he was an assistant in the store of Samuel Robbins on Market
street, and still later he kept a grocery store a short time on his
own account. He was an ardent whig, and during political
campaigns he rendered valuable service to his party by setting
up a reading room, collecting campaign funds, and making
sure of the appearance of whig voters at the polls. Colonel
John B. Thomas was the general adviser of the party, and no
measures were adopted without his approval. One election
morning Col. Thomas was awaked before daylight by a loud
rapping at his door. Opening the window and asking what
was the matter, Morse appeared out of the darkness and called
out, "C-Co-Colonel, rains like h-hell, shall I engage all the h-

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 273

horses ? The Colonel said Yes, and went back to bed. As a
reward for his party services he was appointed Deputy Collec-
tor in 1 841. Mr. Morse married in 1837 Nancy, widow of
Branch Johnson, and daughter of William Atwood, and had
Charles P., 1830, who kept an apothecary's shop some years
at the corner of Court and North streets, and later in the house
of his father, to which he succeeded.

Mr. Morse was a man of the strictest integrity, and conscien-
tiousness was the most marked feature in his character. He
possessed a morbid conscience which kept him in constant fear
that he might be suspected of dishonesty. He was a director
of the Plymouth Bank from 1844 to 1858, and he told me once
that on one occasion when the cashier left him during a tem-
porary absence to keep the Bank he found a twenty dollar bill
behind a chair on the floor. I found it impossible to convince
him that it had not been placed there to test his honesty. The
morbid state of his mind intensified with age, and he commit-
ted suicide April 19, 1858.

Passing now to the house standing in the angle of Winslow
street, I am led to speak of its occupants for the purpose of
making appropriate mention of Dr. Charles T. Jackson, a dis-
tinguished son of Plymouth, who was there born June 21, 1805.
His father, Charles Jackson, married Lucy, daughter of John
Cotton, in 1794, and his children, whom I remember, were
Lucy, born, 1798, who married Charles Brown, Lydia, 1802,
who married Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Charles Thomas.
Mr. Brown, the husband of Lucy, lived many years in Con-
stantinople, and rendered laborious and self-sacrificing service
to the sick during a visitation of the plague in that city. Dr.
Jackson studied medicine with Dr. James Jackson and Dr. Wal-
ter Channing of Boston, and graduated at the Harvard Medical
school in 1829. In the same year he went to Europe, where
he remained three years studying in Paris, and returned in
1832. For his scientific labors and researches he was made a
fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

In 1836 he was appointed geologist of Maine, and was also
appointed by Massachusetts to survey her Maine lands. In
1839 he was appointed geologist of Rhode Island, and in 1840
of New Hampshire. In 1844 and 1845, h« explored the
southern shores of Lake Superior, and opened mines of copper.

274 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

In 1847 he superintended for a time a survey of mineral lands
of the United States in Michigan. When Professor S. F. B.
Morse secured a patent for the telegraph in 1840, Dr. Jackson
claimed that on board the ship Sully in 1832, in which he and
Morse were passengers, he suggested the possibility of corre-
spondence by means of electricity, and explained to Mr. Morse
the method of applying electricity to telegraphic use. It is in
my power to furnish to a certain extent a confirmation of Dr.
Jackson's claim, which, as far as I know, has not found its
way into the literature of the telegraph. In 1846 I was a pas-
senger from New York to Liverpool in the ship Liverpool, in
which a man by the name of Blithen was mate, who was also
mate of the ship Sully, in which Jackson and Morse were pas-
sengers in 1832. He told me that he remembered well when
Dr. Jackson made the suggestion of the possibility of an elec-
tric telegraph, at the dinner table, and the interest with which
Mr. Morse listened, and his questionings concerning a possible
use of electricity in the manner proposed. Mr. Blithen said
that it was evident that the subject was a new one to Mr.
Morse, bearing on matters entirely outside of the profession of
painter to which he belonged. The controversy upon the
respective claims of Morse and Jackson never reached a defi-
nite settlement, except sub-silentia by public opinion in favor
of Morse.

Dr. Jackson made another claim, resting on a more sub-
stantial basis, on which both scientific and general opinion have
been and probably always will be divided. The question
whether he or Dr. W. T. G. Morton was the real discoverer of
anasthesia, will never be settled, and perhaps the only solution
it will reach is that which gives both jointly the credit of the
great discovery. A memorial was presented to Congress in
1852, signed hy one hundred and forty-three physicians of Bos-
ton and vicinity, ascribing the discovery exclusively to Dr.
Jackson. The French Academy of Science decreed a Mont-
yon prize of 2,500 francs to Jackson for the discovery of ether-
ization, and one of the same amount to Morton for the applica-
tion of the discovery to surgical operations. Dr. Jackson re-
ceived orders and decorations from the governments of France,
Sweden, Prussia, Turkey and Sardinia, but what the final ver-
dict of history, the court of last resort, will be, it is too early
to say.

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 275

Dr. Jackson was a man of broad and deep scientific learning,
and in exploring the mysteries lying in the field of science he
found so much that his frank and open nature would not per-
mit him to conceal, that those who knew him were not sur-
prised at the disputed claims which marked his career. He
knew too much, and too many things for him to develop, and
by his own labors to apply to practical use. His mind was
like a garden so crowded with vegetation of his own planting
that none or few reached perfect bloom and seed. But the
passerby attracted by one or another, though ignorant of bot-
any, would pluck a slip or a root, and setting it in his own
grounds, by unremitting care nurse it into vigorous growth and
a perfected life. Without the garden which the gardener had
planted, the passerby would never have found the plant, and
without the act of the passerby the plant would have died and
the labors of the gardener would have been in vain. Thus
it is true that one soweth another reapeth. Dr. Jackson mar-
ried Susan Bridge of Charlestown, and died in 1880.

At the time the controversy between Jackson and Morton
was going on, Horace Wells, a dentist in Hartford, made a
claim that prior to the use of ether he had used in his pro-
fession nitrous oxide gas to prevent pain. In the autumn of
1846 he went to Europe to lay his discovery before the medical
profession in Paris, and in March, 1847, on his return, he was
my fellow passenger on board the steamship Hibernia, and
shared my stateroom. He was a landsman, unfamiliar with
the sea, and easily frightened by the noises of the ship. He
was especially frightened on a dark night in a northwest gale
surrounded by broken ice off the Flemish cap, the northeast
edge of the grand banks. As we entered the field ice Capt.
Harrison deemed it prudent to stand to the southward and es-
cape it. We were constantly feeling the huge blocks of ice,
thumping against us, and with the windows of the dining sa-
loon which was on the main deck, well shuttered, it was about
as dismal a prospect as passengers not yet fully satisfied of the
seaworthiness of sidewheel ocean steamships had ever exper-
ienced. In those days the trumpet was used by the officers
on the deck in giving orders at night or in a storm to the
men at the wheel, and about ten o'clock the few of us who
were not sick, sitting in the saloon, heard the order, ''hard a

276 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

port." Of course we ran to the door, but before reaching it
heard the order, "hard a starboard." I saw on the port side
perhaps a quarter of a mile distant the glisten of an iceberg,
and those on the starboard side saw the glisten of another about
the same distance away, and as we went wallowing along in
the trough of the sea we sailed between them. We turned
in soon after, but there was not much sleep for the poor Doc-
tor after the fright he had received.

About midnight we were awakened by the crash on our
decks of a gigantic wave, which enveloped the ship, filling the
dining saloon sill deep, and pouring down into the cabin, en-
dangering the lives of several passengers whose stateroom
doors were broken open, and who were washed out of their
berths. The Doctor was out and off in an instant, returning
in about ten minutes telling me to get up as the ship was sink-
ing. As I never was easily rattled, I remained in my berth,
either taking no stock in his outcry, or thinking that a speedy
death in my stateroom would be better than a lingering one
among floating cakes of ice. In the morning we were clear of
the ice, and once more on our course. The troubles to which
Dr. Wells was subjected in endeavoring to substantiate his
claim, affected his brain, and he committed suicide in New
York, January 24, 1848. A statue has been erected to his
memory in the park at Hartford, his native city.

Another distinguished Plymouthean was a resident on North
street. Dr. James Thacher lived from 1817 to 1827 in what
is now called the old part of the Samoset House, which he
named Lagrange in honor of Lafayette, and moved from there
into the Winslow house on North street, which he occupied un-
til he built the house until recently occupied by Dr. Thomas
B. Drew in or about 1832. I remember him in the Winslow
house, but it was chiefly in the house built by him which he
occupied until his death that I knew him intimately. His
family and my mother were close friends, and I made frequent
visits to his house to talk with him and learn from him tales
and incidents of the past. I always found him sitting at his
desk in the northwest corner of the westerly parlor ready to
talk with a young man who was sufficiently interested in early
days to visit an old man. He was as long ago as I knew
him very deaf, and sometimes, though not always, I talked

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. Xft

with him through an ear trumpet. Like all deaf persons, his
hearing depended much on the tone in which he was addressed,
not necessarily a loud one, but distinct, clear cut, and from
the throat rather than the lips. His wife, whose voice was
low and soft, but clear, conversed with him with ease. He
was a short man, stoutly built, though not fleshy, and always
as long as I knew him, walked with a cane. He was a jovial
man, ready to laugh at a good story, or at a joke on a friend or«
on himself. He was an ardent friend of temperance, full of
religious sentiment, but owing to his deafness he was while I
knew him, a rare attendant on church worship. Before my
day he had abandoned the practice of his profession, and was
devoted to literary pursuits.

Dr. Thacher was born in Barnstable, February 14, 1754, and
was the son of John and Content (Norton) Thacher of that
town. He attended the public schools until he was eighteen
years of age, when he was apprenticed to Dr. Abner Hersey
for the study of medicine, completing his apprenticeship at the
age of twenty-one soon after the battle of Bunker Hill. He
at once presented himself for examination for medical service
in the army, and being accepted was appointed surgeon's mate
in the hospital at Cambridge, under Dr. John Warren. In
February, 1776, after another examination, he was assigned to
Col. Asa Whitcomb's regiment as mate to Dr. David Town-
send, and went with his regiment on the expedition to Ticon-
deroga. In November, 1778, he was appointed surgeon of the
First Virginia State Regiment, and in 1779 he exchanged into
the First Massachusetts Regiment commanded by Col. Henry
Jackson, and was present at the execution of Andre. In July,
1781, he was appointed surgeon in the Regiment, commanded
by Col. Alexander Scammel, and was present at the siege of
Yorktown, and the surrender of Cornwallis. Retiring from
service in January, 1783, he settled in the following March in
Plymouth, where he resided until his death. His large exper-
ience in the army, and his well known skill as a surgeon, gave
him a large and lucrative practice, from which he would
have acquired a handsome property, had not his investments
and ventures been disastrous. He established with his broth-
er-in-law, Dr. Nathan Hay ward in 1796, the first stage line be-
tween Plymouth and Boston, which with other enterprises, no

278 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

more successful, wasted the sayings from his practice. While
carrying on his practice he had in his office a number of
students, among whom were Dr. Perry of Keene, N. H., Dr.
Nathaniel Bradstreet of Newburyport, and Dr. Benjamin
Shurtleff of Carver and Boston. In many things he was
always a little in advance of his generation, and was inclined to
adopt new ideas before they were sufficiently tried, though in
others he was the successful pioneer. He introduced the
tomato into Plymouth, and with my mother, was the first to set
up a coal grate, and use anthracite coal for domestic purpose.

In 1810 Dr. Thacher published "The American Dispensa-
tory," and in 181 2 "Observations on Hydrophobia." In 1817
be published "The Modern Practice of Physic," in 1822 the
"American Orchardist," and in 1823 "A Military Journal dur-
ing the Revolutionary War," in 1828 "American Medical Bio-
graphy," in 1829, "A Practical Treatise on the Management of
Bees," in 183 1, "An Essay on Demonology, Ghosts, Appari-
tions and Popular Superstitions," and in 1832 a "History of the
Town of Plymouth." Of some of these books second editions
have been published ; some are standard works, and all are rare.
The suggestion I have made that he was in advance of his
time is confirmed by his work on hydrophobia, in which more
than a hint is given that methods of prevention or cure might
be successfully adopted, such as Pasteur has in recent years
advocated. In that work the following passage may be found :

"Experiments made upon the canine poison in brutes might
be considered as an arduous and hazardous undertaking, but it
is not to be deemed altogether impracticable, and I will suggest
the following project for the purpose. In the first place dogs
when affected with madness, instead of being killed, should be
confined and secured that the disease may run its course, and
for the ascertainment of many useful facts connected with its
several stages. If experiments on dogs should be deemed too
hazardous let oflier animals of little value be selected, provided
a sufficient number can be procured. Having provided for
their security in some proper enclosure, let them be inoculated
with the saliva of the mad dog. With some the inoculated
part might be cut out at different stages to ascertain the latest
period at which it may be done successfully. To others, va-
rious counter poisons and specific remedies might be applied to

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 279

the wound and administered internally. In fact it would be dif-
ficult to determine a priori, the extent of the advantages of this
novel plan if judiciously conducted. You may smile at my
project, but however chimerical and visionary it may appear,
I would rejoice to be the Jenner of the proposed institution ;
though I might fail in realizing my thousands I could pride
myself in being the candidate for the honor, and the author of
an attempt to mitigate the horrors attending one of the great-
est of all human calamities/9

Dr. Thacher received from Harvard the honorary degrees of
Master of Arts and Doctor of Medicine in 1810, and from
Dartmouth in the same year, and was made a Fellow of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He married Su-
sanna, daughter of Nathan Hayward of Bridgewater, and sis-
ter of Dr. Nathan Hayward of Plymouth, and had Betsey
Hayward, 1785, who married Daniel Robert Elliott of Savan-
nah, Georgia, and Michael Hodge of Newburyport ; Susan,
1788, who died in infancy ; James, 1790, who also died in in-
fancy; James Hersey, 1792, who died in 1793; Susan, 1794,
who married Wm. Bartlett, and Catherine, 1797, who died in
1800. Dr. Thacher died May 26, 1844, and his wife died
May 17, 1842.

28o PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

CHAPTER XXIX.

James Thacher Hodge, another distinguished son of Plym-
outh, was associated with North street, where he had his home
for some years with his mother and his grandfather, Dr.
James Thacher. His father, Michael Hodge of Newburyport,
a graduate of Harvard in the class of 1799, married in 1814
Betsey Hayward, widow of Daniel Robert Elliott of Savannah,
Georgia, and daughter of James and Susannah (Hayward)
Thacher of Plymouth, and James Thacher Hodge, his only
son, was born in Plymouth in 1816. Mr. Hodge graduated at
Harvard in 1836, and at once applied himself to the study of
chemistry, mineralogy and geology, a field of science in which
he was destined to become distinguished. Among his early
labors were those performed with Dr. Chas. T. Jackson, also
a native of Plymouth, on the geological survey of Maine, and
with Professor Henry D. Rogers on the geological survey of
Pennsylvania. He was afterwards engaged in testing and
utilizing the mineral wealth of Lake Superior lands, and the
explorations and reports made by him largely aided in develop-
ing the mining interests of the northwest.

In later times, as one after another, new state and territory
extended our limits in the west, he was among the first to
discover beneath their surface the rich tribute they were ready
to pay as they entered the gates of the union. I believe that
science will find no step treading its paths more vigorous than
his, and no keener eye exploring its mysteries. After a
season's work on the southern shore of Lake Superior he left
Marquette in the steamer Colburn on the 12th of October,
1871, and on her passage to Detroit the steamer foundered in a
gale and he with others was lost. He inherited from his
grandfather the firmness of nerve which had distinguished
him in his surgical practice, and 'from his father, a fearless-
ness amounting at times to rashness. Mr. Hodge in prepar-
ing his reports was a careful writer, preferring a criticism for
undue caution to a final discovery of extravagant statements
leading unwary investors to failure and misfortune. Within
the field of his literary efforts must be included some hundreds

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 28 1

of articles on scientific subjects contributed to the American
Cyclopaedia.

Mr. Hodge married in 1846 Mary Spooner, daughter of
John Russell of Plymouth, and had Elizabeth Thacher, who
married George Gibbs of Riverside, Kentucky; John Russell,
1847, who married Harriet, daughter of Seth Evans of Cin-
cinnati ; James Michael, 1850, and Mary, 1854.

I cannot leave North street without a word in memory of
the house in which I was born, March 3, 1822, now occupied
as an Inn, known as the Plymouth Rock House. After my
father's death in 1824, my mother continued to occupy the
house until 1845, when she moved to the house now occupied
by the Misses Russell, near the head of the street. The suc-
ceeding occupants in their order were Rev. Henry Edes, who
kept a young ladies' boarding school; Mrs. Sarah Jenkins,
Simon R. Burgess and Charles H. Snell. As long as it was
occupied by our family it had a stable at the westerly end of
the garden on Carver street, and a chaise house opening on
Cole's Hill, which long since gave way to an enlargement of
the dwelling house.

There have been so many alterations and enlargements in
the house since my mother left it in 1845, ^at there is little
left as it was in my boyhood. The middle kitchen, as it was
called, with its dresser containing articles in pewter, such as
hot water plates, candle moulds, syphons, etc., and its sink
with a pewter ewer and bowl where I washed my hands when
coming from play, and the long buttery leading out of it where
the flour and sugar barrels and common china and the last
batch of pies were kept, is now an indistinguishable feature
of the house. The large kitchen, too, with its box seat, the
meal chest with compartments for Indian meal, white meal
and rye meal, the coffee grinder on the wall, the mantel with
its row of two wicked brass lamps always clean and bright,
the fireplace with its high andirons, and a four foot stick for a
forestick, a crane with pothooks and a tin kitchen before the
fire, has gone with the rest. Only one room remains as it
was of old, the northeast corner parlor, a room that is histor-
ic, for there the first grate in Plymouth was set in 1832 for
burning anthracite coal for domestic use.

Dr. Thacher and my mother each had a grate set at the

282 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

same time, but as his house was not yet finished the fire was
kindled in ours first with coal bought by Capt. George Sim-
mons in Boston, and brought to Plymouth in the packet sloop
Splendid. Outside of the house the old garden is gone with
its lilac tree announcing by its bloom the advancing step of
summer.

How well I remember that old lilac tree,

Which stood in the garden near our back entry door;
No lily nor rose seemed ever to me

As sweet as the blossoms that lilac tree bore.
How gladly it welcomed the warm airs of spring,

As out of the west they swept down the vale;
How responsive it seemed, how eager to fling

Its banners of purple to the ravishing gale.
Like the honey bee sipping the sweets of a flower,

How oft and how richly my sense was regaled,
While sitting beneath my ivy clad bower

I drank in the perfume its blossoms exhaled.
The garden is gone, and the old lilac tree

Stands no longer by the back entry door;
But its fragrance remains, reminder to me

Of a home once beloved— but now no more.

What changes time has wrought in the scenes of my youth.
One feature of these scenes is left to remind me of my Cole's
Hill home, which years have failed to erase. In my earliest
youth nearly four score years ago a bed of bouncing betts
bloomed on the grassy bank opposite our home, and it is
blooming still as if contesting with me a race for the longest
life. I visit it every year to make sure that it has not given
up the contest, and when I stand by it it seems to say, "Ah,
old fellow, I will beat you yet." I hope you will, dear friend
of my youth, and bloom on for generations to come, reminding
others as you do me of my childhood days.

I have spoken of N. Russell & Co., and Jeremiah Farris and
Bourne Spooner as connected with manufacturing interests
in Plymouth. There are two others among those who have
passed away, whom I ought to notice, Oliver Edes and Na-
thaniel Wood. Mr. Edes was the son of Oliver and Lucy
(Lewis) Edes, and was born in East Needham, November 10,
181 5. At the age of sixteen he began to learn the trade of nail
making at works on the Boston mill dam owned by Horace

OP AN OCTOGENARIAN. 283

Gray. He afterwards ran a tack machine in the works of
Apollos Randall & Co., in South Braintree, and at the age of
twenty-two invented a machine for cutting rivets from drawn
wire. Before that time rivets had been made by hand, and it
was difficult to make the trade believe that any but handmade
rivets would meet the wants of mechanics. In 1840 he entered
into a partnership with Andrew Holmes under the firm name
of Holmes, Edes & Co., with a factory at North Marshfield.
At the end of three years the firm was dissolved and a new
one formed between Mr. Edes and Jeremiah Farris, under
the firm name of Edes & Co. At the expiration of a year,
in 1844, the firm moved their business to Plymouth. In 1850
Mr. Edes, having disposed of his interest, formed with Na-
thaniel Wood the firm of Edes & Wood, and began the manu-
facture of zinc shoe nails and tacks, and soon after the roll-
ing of zinc plates at Chiltonville. In 1859 he bought out Mr.
Wood, and in 1880, with his son Edwin L. Edes, the partner-
ship of Oliver Edes and son was formed. In 1883, a partner-
ship was formed consisting of Oliver Edes, Jason W. Mixter,
Edwin L. Edes and T. E. Heald of Knoxville for the develop-
ment of zinc mines in Virginia and Tennessee, and for the
manufacture of zinc metal. He married October 7, 1836,
Susan, daughter of Ebenezer and Lydia (Curtis) Davie, and
had William Wallace, 1847, who married Ellen M., daughter
of Calvin H. Eaton, Lydia Curtis 185 1, who married Jasoo
W. Mixter, and Edwin L., 1853., who married Mary E.,
daughter of Edgar C. Raymond. Mr. Edes died February 21,
1884.

Nathaniel Wood of Dedham married Rhoda Colburn, and
came to Plymouth in the early part of the last century, and had
six children, after 1810, among whom was Nathaniel, who was
born November 25, 1814- The son, Nathaniel, learned the
nail cutter's trade at the works on the Mill dam in Boston,
owned by Horace Gray, father of the late Horace Gray, asso-
ciate justice of the United States Supreme Court. He worked
for some years in the nail factory of N. Russell & Co., and
for a time on his own account in cutting zinc nails and tacks,
and in 1850 formed a partnership with Oliver Edes, under
the firm name of Edes & Wood, in a factory which stood on
Forge pond brook in Chiltonville, where the business was car-

284 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

ried on of making zinc shoe nails and tacks and rolling zinc
plates. In 1859 he sold out his interest to Mr. Edes, and with
Charles O. Churchill, under the firm name of N. Wood & Co.,
continued the business in a factory farther down the stream
on the road leading from the Sandwich road to the old Mano-
xnet road at what was called the Double Brook dam. At a
later time he ran a small factory on Little Brook. He mar-
ried in 1837 Angeline, daughter of Lewis and Betsey (Wes-
ton) Finney, and had Warren Colburn, 1840, and Florence A.>
1847. He married second, 1854, Betsey R., daughter of
Charles and Abigail (Russell) Churchill, and had Nathaniel
Russell, 1856, and died April 26, 1888.

Allen Crocker Spooner, whom I knew intimately, was a
brilliant man, who was cut off by death at the threshold of an
especially promising career. He was the son of Capt. Nathan-
iel and Lucy (Willard) Spooner, and was born March 9,
1814, in the house on the southerly side of High street, next
west of the house on the corner of Spring street. He grad-
uated at Harvard in 1835, and was admitted to the Suffolk
bar, September 3, 1839. He belonged to a coterie of scholarly
and jovial men, who met at the eating house of General Bates
once a week, and over their bitter ale were legitimate succes-
sors of the Fleet street club of Johnson and Gat-rick and Gold-
smith. The members of this coterie were Fay Barrett of Con-
cord, James Russell Lowell of Cambridge, George W. Minns,
Nathan Hale, Allen Crocker Spooner and John C. King of
Boston and Benjamin Drew of Plymouth. All of these were
Harvard men except King, who was a sculptor, and Benjamin
Drew, a journalist, connected with the Boston Post. Their
jokes on each other, though sometimes rough, were always
taken in good part. One evening Minns and Spooner werq
walking into town from Cambridge and feeling a little dry in
the throat, Spooner said: "Minns, have you got any money
about your clothes, for I spent my last cent in paying toll?"
"I've got just twelve and a half cents," said Minns, a sum
which was the silver nine pence of that period. Peter B.
Brigham kept a drinking saloon in the old concert hall build-
ing on the corner of Hanover and Court streets, and his drinks
were of two prices, those like Deacon Grant and Dr. Pierpont,
named after distinguished temperance men, were nine pence,

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 285

and all other common drinks were six and a quarter cents or
four pence half penny. They marched into Brigham's as if
they were rolling in riches, and as they came to the counter,
Minns said, "Spooner what are you going to have." Spooner
answered, "I think 1 will have a Deacon Grant, what are you
going to have?" "Well, I don't feel very dry, I guess I won't
take anything." Mr. Spooner was sought as a guest on many
public occasions, where he was sure to entertain his audience by
either a graceful speech, a bit of humor, or an appropriate
poem. I remember that on one occasion he was invited to join
the Boston underwriters in their annual excursion down Bos-
ton harbor. A little while before, Capt. Jas. Murdock, com-
manding the packet ship Ocean Monarch, had run his ship
ashore at Cohasset or Scituate in a fog, though fortunate
enough to get her off. At the lunch of the party on board the
excursion steamer, Mr. Spooner assumed the position of toast-
master, and calling up the guests one after another, answered
the toasts himself, adopting the personality of each. Among
others he toasted Capt. Murdock, who was present, and kept
the company in a roar by claiming a discovery in the science
of navigation by which he had found that the use of the lead
was an obsolete practice, only persisted in by those who had
not yet learned that ships were constructed to navigate the
ocean and not the land. Capt. Murdock, I believe, was a cabin
window Captain, a fine looking man, jolly good fellow,
popular with his passengers, but not a sailor in the truest sense
of the word. Afterwards in coming down the English channel,
his ship was destroyed by fire off Holy head, and a passen-
ger whom I knew by the name of Southworth, told me that
Murdock was the first of the ship's company to reach Liver-
pool with news of the disaster.

About the year 1845 Mr. Spooner went to England, a pas-
senger in the packet ship Devonshire, Capt Luce, the same
Captain Luce who commanded the Collin's steamship Arctic,
which was run into by the Brig Vesta, near Cape Race, Sept.
24, 1854, and sunk with the loss of three hundred and fifty
lives. Capt. Luce, whom I afterwards met, told me that when
the ship went down he stood on the paddle box holding his
little boy by the hand and that he thought he would never
stop going down. He had no sooner reached the surface, still

286 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

holding his little boy by the hand, than a spar loosened from
the wreck, came up with great force, and striking his son,
killed him instantly. He succeded in reaching a fragment
of the wreck, and was picked up by one of the brig's boats.

On his return home, Mr. Spooner told the Boston Old Col-
ony Club, of which I was a member, that in running into the
harbor of old Plymouth as he lay on deck basking in the sun,
he saw a vessel coming out, which he pictured in his mind as
the Mayflower starting on her voyage to the new world. His
surprise was great when, as the vessel passed, he read on her
stern the name of the Pilgrim ship the Mayflower. My
wonder at the time whether his eyesight was not blurred by an
exuberant imagination was modified at a later time by an in-
cident within my own experience. On the 19th oi August,
1895, in crossing the English channel from Queenboro to
Flushing in Holland, I saw coming from a northern port a
small steamer crossing our course diagonally, almost exactly
the course which the Speedwell steered in August, 1620, in
running from Delfthaven to Southampton, where she joined
the Mayflower. As she passed our stern I was a little startled
as I read the name Speedwell on her bow. I was talking
at the time with two passengers, and calling their attention to
the name of the vessel, I told them the Pilgrim story. Lest
I might be suspected like my friend Spooner of an exuberant
imagination, I examined the British marine register, after my
return home, and found one of the three Speedwells whose
size agreed with the vessel I saw. She belonged in Ipswich,
and I wrote to the owner asking him to advise me of the
whereabouts of his steamer on the 19th of August, 1895.
Unable to find in Boston a Victoria stamp, I was obliged to
send my letter without a return stamp enclosed, and I attribute
to that circumstance my failure to receive a reply. The inci-
dent was especially interesting, as I had just visited Scrooby
for the purpose of placing a bronze tablet on the site of
Scrooby Manor, in which the Pilgrim church was formed, and
was on my way to Leyden, the Pilgrims' home in Holland.

I shall at this point in my narrative devote some space to
notices of such Plymoutheans as have distinguished them-
selves in other localities without regard to the houses with
which by birth or otherwise they may have been associated.

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 287

To these will be added notices of a few who were residents
of Plymouth, but who have been in preceding chapters only
incidentally alluded to.

William G. Russell was the son of Thomas and Mary Ann
(Goodwin) Russell, and was born in Plymouth, November
18, 1821. After attending the public schools he was fitted for
college by Hon. John A. Shaw of Bridgewater, and graduated
at Harvard in 1840. After teaching in a private school in
Plymouth a short time, and in the Dracut Academy a year,
he studied law in the office of his brother-in-law, Wm. Whit-
ing, and at the Harvard Law School, receiving from the lat-
ter the degree of LL. B. in 1845, an(* being admitted to the
Suffolk bar July 25, 1848. He was at once associated with
Mr. Whiting as a partner, and while the latter was holding
the position of solicitor of the War Department from 1862 to
1865, *he business of the firm devolved on him. After the
death of Mr. Whiting in 1873, George Putnam joined him
as a partner, and at a later period, Jabez Fox was added to the
firm. After the death of Sydney Bartlett he was universally
recognized as the leader of the Suffolk bar, and was offered a
seat on the bench of the Supreme Judicial Court, both as as-
sociate and chief justice. He was a member of the Massa-
chusetts Historical Society, and at various times held the
positions of President of the Union Club, the social library
association, and the Suffolk bar association ; vice president of
the Pilgrim Society, director of the Mount Vernon National
Bank, and the Massachusetts Hospital Life Insurance Co.,
and Harvard overseer from 1869 to 1881, and from 1882 to
1894, He married October 6, 1847, Mary Ellen, daughter of
Thomas and Lydia Coffin Hedge of Plymouth, and died in
Boston, February 6, 1896.

Thomas Russell, brother of the above, was born in Plym-
outh, September 26, 1825, and graduated at Harvard in 1845.
He studied law with Whiting & Russell in Boston, and was
admitted to the Suffolk bar November 12, 1849. He was
appointed Justice of the Police Court of Boston, February 26,
1852, and in 1859 on the establishment of the Superior Court
was appointed one of its associate justices. While he was on
the bench a number of cases of garrotting and robbery occur-
red on Boston Commons, which for a time made the Common

288 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

dangerous to cross in the evening. The first person charged
with the offence was tried before Judge Russell, and convicted,
and the severe sentence imposed by him put an end to the
commission of the crime. In 1867 he resigned his seat on the
Superior bench, and on the accession of General Grant to the
Presidency, was apointed collector of the port of Boston.
During General Grant's second term he resigned the collector-
ship, and was appointed minister to the Republic of Venezuela,
where he remained several years. He was a Harvard overseer
from 1855 to 1867; a Trustee of the State Nautical School
several years, and in 1879 was chosen President of the Pilgriiq
Society, holding that position until his death. The judge was
an ardent republican, and being a ready speaker, was always
in demand on the political stump. He was occasionally select-
ed for the delivery of formal orations, the most notable of
which ocurring to me were a fourth of July oration before the
Boston City Government, and a eulogy on General Grant de-
livered in Plymouth. He married in 1853 Mary Ellen, daugh-
ter of Rev. Edward T. Taylor of Boston, and died in Boston,
February 9, 1887.

Henry Warren Torrey, born in Plymouth, was the son of
John and Marcia Otis (Warren) Torrey. He graduated at
Harvard in 1833, and studied law in the office of his uncle,
Charles Henry Warren in New Bedford. He was 3t the same
time co-operating with Frederick Percival Leverett in prepar-
ing what is known as Leverett's latin lexicon, published in
1837. While engaged in that work his eyes became
seriously affected, and practice in the profession of law was
abandoned. I remember that at the time of the great whig
celebration in Boston on the 10th of September, 1846, he was
living in New Bedford, and on that occasion the New Bedford
delegation carried a banner with an inscription of which he
was the author. On the banner a whale ship was painted with
a whale alongside in the process of stripping, and the fires
under the try pots smoking on deck, and beneath was the in-
scription : "Martin VanBuren — we have tried him in, and now
we will try him out."

In 1844 Mr. Torrey was appointed tutor at Har-
vard and .instructor in elocution, and served until 1848.
My impression is that from 1848 to 1856 he lived in Hamilton

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 289

Place, Boston, and with his sister, Elizabeth, taught a young,
ladies' school. In 1856 he was appointed McLean Professor
of Ancient and Modern History at Harvard, serving until
1886, when on his resignation he was appointed Professor
Emeritus, serving until his death. In 1879 he received the
degree of LL. D. from Harvard, and from 1888 until his
death, he was a Harvard overseer. He was also a member of
the Massachusetts Historical Society, and a fellow of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He died in Cam-
bridge in 1893.

Lemuel Stephens, son of Lemuel and Sally (Morton)
Stephens, was born in Plymouth, February 22, 1814. He be-
longed to a sturdy race, and I well remember his grandfather,
William, who was born in 1752. His father, Lemuel and his
uncle William, occupied the two Stephens' houses between
Union street and the shore, but I am inclined to think, while
Lemuel built the house he occupied, that the house William
occupied was built by his father. Lemuel and William, the
father and uncle of the subject of this notice were engaged
many years in the grand bank fishery, and Stephens' wharf,
which since the abandonment of the fishery has gradually
crumbled away, presented once a busy scene when the Jane
and Constitution and the Duck and the Industry were fitting
out in the spring, and washing out in the autumn. The
Stephens brothers were men of brains, and consequently men
of ideas, men who were called pessimists because they looked
out for weak spots in government and society, and sought to
correct them. The optimists on the other hand flattered them-
selves that everything was right when everything was wrong,
and that the ship was tight, though leaking a thousand strokes
an hour. They were the earliest abolitionists in the town, the
earliest advocates of temperance reform, the earliest promoters
of a well maintained education of the people, while the opti-
mists as long as they were making money said, "All is well, let
things be."

Lemuel Stephens of whom I specially speak, the son of
Lemuel, graduated at Harvard in 1835, and soon after gradua-
tion went to Pittsburg in Pennsylvania, where for a time he
taught in a private school. After leaving Pittsburg he went
to Germany for study, spending three years in Heidelberg and

290 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

Gottingen. On his return he was appointed Professor of
chemistry in the western University of Pennsylvania, where
he remained until 1850, when he was appointed professor of
chemistry and physics in Gerard College, continuing in
service until 1885. He married Ann Maria Buckminster of
Framingham,-Mass., a relative of Rev. Dr. Joseph Stevens
Buckminster, once pastor of Brattle street church in Boston,
and died in Philadelphia, March 25, 1892.

Another Plymouth man, of whom I must speak, was Wins-
low Marston Watson, of whom few of my readers ever heard.
The son of Winslow Watson he was born I think on Clark's
Island in 1812, and graduated at Harvard in 1833. His
mother, Mrs. Harriet Lothrop Watson, was a close observer
of persons and families, their traits of character and their
relations to each other, and was the first genealogist whom I
ever saw. Her son, Winslow, inherited her powers of obser-
vation, and her remarkable memory, which in a broader sphere
of life made him a reconteur of wide reputation. He early
entered the profession of journalism, and in 1842 I found him,
while on a visit to Troy, the editor of the Troy Whig. He
later removed to Washington, where for some years he ren-
dered valuable service as correspondent of leading newspapers
in New England and New York. His artistic taste and lit-
erary ability attracted the attention of Mr. Corcoran, the
wealthy banker and patron of art, and in his service he per-
formed appreciative work. I doubt whether any man ever
lived in Washington who came in contact with more persons
of distinction, and could portray their characters and habits
more thoroughly, than Mr. Watson. For nearly forty years
I never failed to see him when visiting Washington, and if
he had followed my advice to publish a book of reminiscences
he would have made a valuable contribution to the literature
of Washington life. His personality was striking, of med-
ium height and weight, with a fair complexion and large pro-
tuberant blue eyes, with that sad, patient, placid, yet protest-
ing expression which Homer recognized who called the celes-
tial queen the ox-eyed Juno. He married in 1852 Louisa
Gibbons, and died in Washington in 1889. He was a cousin
of the late Benjamin Marston Watson, of whom I have al-
ready spoken, and to whom it occurs to me to refer again

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 2<)I

by inserting the following lines, which I inscribed in a book
presented to him on his last birthday, and which better than
my earlier reference to him, illustrate the beauty of his char-
acter and life:

A placid stream, with flowers on either hand,
And meads beyond, tempting the eye of art;
With here and there a ripple as it runs
Against opposing winds, or flows triumphant
Over hidden shoals, with lips upturned
And smiling in the noonday sun.
Such, my dear friend, has been thy life.
"Twere vain to wish it ever thus to be,
For every stream must some time reach the sea.

There lived in my youth on the lower corner of Sumfner
and Spring streets an elderly gentleman of kind words and
gentle speech, who, though living a distance from my home,
early attracted me and found a lasting place in my memory.
From 1806 to 1819, he had been treasurer of the town, and
was some years a teacher in what was later called the high
school. His name was Benjamin Drew, and he was the father
of my long time friend, Benjamin Drew, who died in 1903.
He was something of a poet, and his son told the story that
one time when asked to contribute an inscription to be placed
on the gravestone of his brother-in-law, Barnabas Holmes, he
composed the following :

By temperance taught, a few advancing slow,
To distant fate by easy journeys go;
Calmly they lie them down like evening sheep, —
On their own woolly fleeces softly sleep.

Objection was made to the inscription by the family of Mr.
Holmes, it appearing too personal, as Mr. Holmes had been a
dealer in mutton. Like most emasculated poetry the substi-
tute adopted was tame — as follows :

By temperance governed, and by reason taught,
The paths of peace and pleasantness he sought;
With competence and length of days was blest,
And cheered with hopes of everlasting rest.

He married in 1797 Sophia, daughter of Sylvanus and Mar-
tha (Wait) Bartlett. His son, Benjamin, of whom I espec-
ially speak in this notice, was born in Plymouth, November 28,
1812. He was educated at the public schools, leaving the high

292 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

school about four years before I entered it. After leaving
school he entered the office of the Old Colony Memorial to
learn the printer's trade, and there laid the foundation of his
reputation as an expert in typography. About the year 1835
he began his career as teacher, and during a period of twenty-
five years taught in the Phillips, Otis, Mayhew and Glover
schools in Boston. While living in Boston his companionship
was prized by scholarly men, and he was one of a group of
social fellows already referred to who met at a saloon in Corn-
hill square, called the Shades, kept by General Bates, a Scotch-
man. There the group would frequently meet in Bohemian
fashion to exchange witticisms and criticisms and enjoy a mug
of ale. These occasional opportunities to give vent to his
sense of humor were not sufficient to exhaust his flow of wit
and under the cognomen of Ensign Stebbins he often wrote
for the "carpet bag," and was always a welcome contributor to
the humorous columns of the Boston Post. I remember read-
ing a squib of his in the Post sixty years ago, representing a
showman explaining and describing to his audience the various
features of his exhibition, as for instance:

"This, ladies and gentlemen, is the zebra, it measures ten feet
from head to tail, and eleven feet from tail to head, has
twelve stripes along its back and nary one alike."

"This is the hippopotamus, an amphibious animal, what dies
in the water and can't live on the land."

"This, ladies and gentlemen, is the shoved over of the
scalper's art, the statute of Apollos spoken of in the acts of
the Apostles, where it says that Paul doth plant and Apollos
water, and to illustrate the text more fully I have appended to
his left hand a large, tin watering pot, which I bought of a
tin peddler for thirty-seven and a half cents."

About i860 Mr. Drew went to St. 'Paul, where he taught
school a year, and then for some years he performed the duties
of proof reader in the Government printing office in Wash-
ington. In 1881 he made a journey around the world, spend-
ing a short time on the way with his son Edward Bangs Drew,
a Mandarin in the Chinese Imperial Customs Sendee, with
headquarters at Tientsin, where he passed his 70th birthday.
On his return he settled permanently in his native town, re-
calling the scenes and friends of earlier days, and roaming

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 293

among the haunts of the fathers of the town. He published
during his life a book entitled "Pens and Types," a standard
work on typography, and another entitled, "The North side of
slavery," and after his final return to Plymouth he published
a valuable descriptive catalogue of the gravestones and inscrip-
tions on Plymouth Burial Hill. He married Caroline Bangs
of Brewster, and died in Plymouth July 19, 1903, at the age
of ninety years, seven months and twenty-one days.

Zabdiel Sampson, son of George and Hannah (Cooper)
Sampson, was born in Plympton in 1781, and graduated at
Brown University in 1803. He studied law with Joshua
Thomas, and settled in Plymouth. In 1816 he was chosen
member of Congress, and in 1820 was appointed collector of
the port of Plymouth to succeed Henry Warren. At that time
political lines were in a comparatively subdued and inactive
state. The loose constructionist or federal party was still in
existence, but declining in strength and power. Monroe, a
strict constructionist or Democratic Republican, was re-elected
with practical unanimity, while the campaign of 1824 was
rather a personal contest between John Quincy Adams and An-
drew Jackson, than a party struggle. During the administration
of Adams the name National Republican took the place of Fed-
eralist, and the Democratic Republican party assumed the
name of Democrat. Thus parties remained until the campaign
of 1832, when the National Republicans assumed the name
of Whigs. Thus the two great parties continued until 1856,
when the Republican party was born. There were splinters
from these parties at various times, such as the anti-masonic
party in 1830, the liberty party in 1839, the free soil Party in
1848 and the American party in 1852, as there are now splinters
from the Democratic and Republican parties like the tem-
perance and labor parties.

Mr. Sampson was undoubtedly when appointed collector in
1820 a Monroe strict constructionist, or in other words a
Democrat, but retained the office through the Adams admin-
istration because during that period party lines were loosely
drawn. He died while in office, July 19, 1828. He was a
member of the board of selectmen eight years, during five of
which he was its chairman. He married in 1804, Ruth, daugh-
ter of Ebenezer Lobdell of Plympton, and had ten children,

294 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

neither of whom I think has descendants living in Plymouth.

I have said that the presidential contest in 1824 was a per-
sonal one between Adams and Jackson. Then began the hos-
tility between these two men, which was never placated. Gen-
eral Jackson died June 8, 1845, before the days of the tele-
graph, and rumors of his death drifted to the East several
times before the event occurred. Rev. Dr. Wm. P. Lunt, Mr.
Adams' pastor in Quincy, told me that while in Boston one
day, authentic news of Jackson's death was received, and on
his return home he though it proper for him to call at Mr.
Adams' house and communicate to him the sad news. As he
entered the library Mr. Adams was standing with his back to
the door, looking over some papers on a window seat. He said,
"Mr. Adams, I heard in Boston this afternoon the sad news
of the death of General Jackson, your successor in the presi-
dential chair." Mr. Adams, without looking round or stopping
in his work exclaimed, "Umph, the old rascal is dead at last,
is he?"

Schuyler Sampson, brother of the above mentioned Zabdiel,
was born in Plympton in March, 1787, but moved with his
father to Plymouth when young. I am inclined to think that
he and his brother lived for some years in the house which
until recently stood on the corner of Summer street and Spring
hill. All through my boyhood, however, and until his death,
he owned and occupied the house on the northerly side of Sum-
mer street, next westerly of the house for many years occupied
by Benjamin Hathaway. He was for several years a member
of the board of selectmen, and in 1828 was appointed to suc-
ceed his brother as collector of the port. He served in the lat-
ter office during the administrations of Jackson and Van Buren,
and in 1841 succeeded Ebenezer G. Parker as cashier of the
Old Colony Bank. He married in 1823 Mary Ann, daughter
of Amasa Bartlett, and had Mary Ann Bartlett, 1825, who
married George Gustavus Dyer. He married second, 1827,
Sarah Taylor (Bartlett) Bishop, sister of his first wife, and
widow of Wm. Bishop. By his second wife he had Sarah Tay-
lor Bartlett, 1829, George Schuyler, 1833 and Hannah Bart-
lett, 1835, who married Rev. Isaac C. White. The late Wm.
Bishop of Boston was the son of the second wife by her first
husband. Mr. Sampson died in Plymouth May 10, 1855.

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 295

During my boyhood Truman Bartlett lived on the notherly
side of High street, west of Spring street. He was a tall,
robust man, weighing I should judge about two hundred and
twenty-five pounds, and I remember him well with his plaid
Camlet cloak which he wore in the winter, reminding me of
the outer cold weather garment worn by the watchmen in Bos-
ton before the police patrol was established in that city. He
was the son of Samuel and Elizabeth (Jackson) Bartlett, and
was born in Plymouth, March 10, 1776. He *was a ship-
master for many years, and sailed for my grandfather, Wm.
Davis and Barnabas Hedge. He married in 1798 Experience,
daughter of Robert Finney, and had William, Josiah, Flavel,
Charles, Stephen, Truman, Azariah, Ann, Lucia and Angeline.
Of these Angeline died at the age of twenty, April 24, 1838,
and Charles died in childhood in 1826; Lucia died October 3,
1 84 1, at the age of twenty-eight, and of Ann I know nothing.
The remaining six sons all became shipmasters, and formed
a group of merchant captains, such as no other Plymouth
family can match. Of William, who commanded the Charles
Bartlett, and Truman, who commanded the Queen of the
Bast, I have already spoken, but of the others I have no re-
liable record. Captain Bartlett died August 18, 1841.

Ezra Finney, called Captain, lived on the northwesterly cor-
ner of Summer and Spring streets from 1822, until his death.
He was the son of Ezra and Hannah (Luce) Finney, and was
born in Plymouth July 5, 1772. He may have been a ship-
master in his early days, and his connection with the Old
Colony Insurance Company, of which he was at one time Pres-
ident, as well as his ownership and management of naviga-
tion, renders such an occupation probable. He was a member
of the board of selectmen three years, and the absence of his
name in connection with the whale fishery suggests a conser-
vatism in business affairs . which precluded investments over
which he could have no personal supervision. In navigation
he was enterprising and successful, but as far as I know never
engaged in the grand bank fishery. He married in 1797 Lydia,
daughter of Andrew Bartlett, and had Lydia Bartlett, 1799,
who married Capt. Lemuel Clark, Ezra, 1804, who married
John Bartlett. He married second 1808, Betsey, widow of
John Bishop, and daughter of Eliphalet Holbrook, Eliza, and

296 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

had Betsey Bishop, 1809, who married William Sampson Bart-
lett; Mary Coville, 181 1; Caroline, 1814; Ezra, 1817; Mary
Coville, 1819, who married Henry Mills ; and Caroline, 1822.
Abby, daughter of Captain Finney's second wife by her first
husband, John Bishop, was born in 1801, and married James
E. Leonard and Henry Mills.

It was the custom under what was called the Suffolk Bank
system, when banks were forbidden by law to pay out any
bills but their own to send every two or three days all for-
eign bills received by the banks to the Suffolk
bank in Boston and receive from that bank their own bills in
return. As expresses were not established in Plymouth until
after 1845 packages of bills to or from the Suffolk bank were
entrusted to any friend of the Plymouth or Old Colony Bank,
as they were to myself even when a boy. On one
occasion Mr. Finney received from the Suffolk bank a pack-
age of the bills of the Old Colony Bank. Chilled by his ride
from Boston in a stage sleigh, it was not until he had thawed
out by the home fire that the package was brought to his mind.
It was not in his pockets, nor was it to be found anywhere in
the house. As a last resort he hurried to the stage stable,
where his anxiety was relieved by the discovery of the package
hidden by the straw with which the floor of the sleigh was
covered. This incident was far from being indicative of
carelessness on his part, for he was a methodical business man,
and one as thoughtful of the interests of others as of his own.
On another occasion he proved himself a thrifty trustee of the
Savings Bank. Mr. Danforth, the treasurer, having occasion
to leave town for a day or perhaps two, left Mr. Finney in
charge of the bank, and among the contents of the safe was
a strapped package of counterfeit bills which had been col-
lecting for some time, and had been charged off to profit
and loss. On Mr. Danfortli's return, not finding the pack-
age, he asked Mr. Finney if he had seen the bills, and Mr.
Finney replied that he had, and not doubting them genuine,
had paid them out. The bills were never heard from after-
wards, and their amount was in due time credited back to
profit and loss. Captain Finney died February 5, 1861.

Andrew Bartlett, son of Andrew and Sarah Holbrook Bart-
lett, was born in Plymouth, October 20, 1806, and lived in

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 297

High street, near his kinsman, Truman Bartlett. He was a
shipmaster, possessing those qualities which made him not
only a skilful navigator, but a prudent, economical and trust-
worthy business man. He told me once that during his career
as master, he had never lost a man or a spar. While this fact
speaks well for his seamanship, it was due largely to the
models of vessels in his day, and the absence of those hasty
methods of doing business which characterize our times. A
blunt bow and a full counter made it easy to encounter a head
sea, and to leave a following one, while there was enougji left
of the old kettle bottom to check the shift of even a cargo of
railroad iron, which, however securely braced, is always ready
to start with the kick of a rolling sea. Safety to ship and
cargo, not speed, was the great consideration sought. When
Capt. Fox in the brig Emerald, after a thirteen days' pas-
sage from Liverpool, rounded to off Long wharf and was
hailed with the question, "When did you leave Liverpool,
Capt. Fox," his reply was, "Last week, damn you, when do
you think ?" He did not say how many sails he had lost, nor
whether his cargo in the forehold was dry. I think Capt.
Bartlett sailed for a combination of owners of whom Ezra
Finney, Wm. Nelson and Benjamin Barnes were the chief.

After abandoning the sea his interests in seamen led him
to devote his life to their service in connection with the sailors'
Bethel and Home in Boston. He married in 1830 Mary,
daughter of William Barnes of Plymouth, and had Victor A.,
1841, Mary E. 1843 ^ Andrew P., 1848. He married sec-
ond, in 1866, Phebe J. Tenney, who had been for a number
of years a school teacher in Plymouth. Captain Bartlett
died February 4, 1882.

William Nelson, son of William and Bathsheba (Lothrop)
Nelson, was born in Plymouth, September 29, 1796, on the
old Nelson farm near Cold Spring, which had been in the
Nelson family from the time of its first American ancestor,
William Nelson, who married Martha, daughter of widow
Ford, who came to Plymouth in the ship Fortune in 1621. I
think Mr. Nelson lived on High street until 1841, when he
built and occupied until his death the house on Summer street,
which in 1867 was sold to Barnabas Churchill. He had a
sister, Mary Lothrop Nelson, who married Jesse Harlow, and

298 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

he with Mr. Harlow, under the firm name of Nelson & Harlow,
was engaged some years in navigation, with a counting room
on the westerly side of Water street, opposite to Nelson's
wharf. He was a director in the Old Colony Bank, and in
the Old Colony Insurance Company, a prominent member of
the Orthodox Congregational church, and a liberal contri-
butor to its support. He married in 1821 Sarah, daughter of
Josiah Carver, and had William Henry, 1830, who is noticed
at the end of this chapter; Thomas Lothrop, 1833, who mar-
ried Susan A. Warren of Exeter, N. H., and Mary Stratton
of Atchison, Miss.; and Sarah Elizabeth, who married Wm.
K. Churchill. Mr. Nelson died October 6, 1863.

There is one whom I omitted in my wanderings in the
northerly part of Court street, of whom I shall be glad to
speak. I heard much of him in my youth, though he died be-
fore my birth, and of the disappointment which his premature
death caused to be felt by his friends. Isaac Eames Cobb, the
son of Cornelius and Grace (Eames) Cobb, was born Jan-
uary 19, 1789, in the old Nehemiah Savery house, still stand-
ing south of Cherry street, a little back from Court street. He
graduated at Harvard in 1814 a leading scholar in his class,
and began the study of law. A disease of the lungs obliged
him to abandon a profession in which there was every reason
to believe that he would have a successful career. He entered
into business with Messrs. Isaac L. and Thomas Hedge, but
died a victim of consumption January 14, 1821. He married
in 1816 Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Bartlett, whose house
occupied the site on which that of Gideon F. Holmes now
stands. His daughter Elizabeth, the widow of Joseph Holmes,
lives m a house standing on what was a part of her grand-
father Bartlett's estate. The following inscription is on his
gravestone on Burial Hill:

Possessed he talents, ten or five or one,
The work he had to do— that work was done ;
Informed his mind, in wisdom's ways he trod,
Reluctant died, but died resigned to God.

No man was better known in Plymouth in his day than
Joseph Lucas. He was a son of Joseph and Ruby Lucas of
Plympton, and was born in that town in February, 1785. He
learned the nail cutter's trade, and worked at it many years

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 299

in the works of N. Russell & Co. His work was something
more than perfunctory, for it not only led him into a study of
machinery with its needed improvements, but it gave him also
an opportunity to ponder over worldly affairs beyond the
horizon of his daily occupation. His ingenuity suggested use-
ful improvements in nail cutting machines, which proved
profitable to both his employers and himself. Mr. Lucas was
an ardent whig, and as a manufacturer was a supporter of the
tariff policy of his party, little thinking that within thirty-five
years of his death the tariff policy which he advocated would
by the imposition of high duties on coal and iron wipe out of
existence the nail cutting business of New England.

Mr. Lucas was often sought to represent the town in the
General Court, and in the house of representatives his name
was as much identified with Plymouth as that of Kellogg with
Pittsfield ; Banning with Lee ; Lawrence with Belchertown, or
Lee with Templeton. In his day it was not the custom as it
is now, to nominate one of two or three who set themselves
up as candidates, but the voters selected the men they wanted
for representatives, believing that laws to be respected must be
enacted by men of good judgment and superior intelligence.
Mr. Lucas married in 1823 Lydia, daughter of William and
Lydia (Holmes) Keen, and had Augustus Henry, 1824; Ca-
therine Amelia, 1825, and Frederick William, 1831. Mr. Lucas
died January 13, 187 1.

Before crossing- Town Brook I must speak of Joseph P.
Brown and Wm. H. Nelson, though they are not associated
with the remote history of our town. Mr. Brown was the son
of Lemuel Brown, and was born December 12, 1812. His
father was a cabinet maker who came to Plymouth with a wife,
Sarah Palmer of Cambridge, and established himself in busi-
ness with a shop in the rear of the house next west of the
present residence of the Misses Rich on Summer street. He
did good work, and I know many mahogany chairs of his
workmanship still doing good service in the parlors of some
of my friends. His two sons, Stephen P. and Joseph P., learn-
ed the trade of their father, and in later years carried on
business on the south side of High street, and in the building,
a part of which is occupied by the provision market of C. B.
Harlow on Market street. At a still later time Joseph P.

3<X> PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

carried on the same business in the old Plymouth bank build-
ing on Court street. Joseph was on the board of selectmen
with me from 1856 to i860, inclusive, and I am glad of the
opportunity to attest his usefulness and fidelity in the man-
agement of town affairs. He was a man of dry humor, and
had many a story to tell, often provoking a laugh against him-
self. He chewed tobacco freely, and was obliged before speak-
ing to deliver himself of the saliva which had been accumulat-
ing. I remember that one autumn afternoon when the board
had been visiting the south end of the town, we stopped at
the house of David Clark, a member of the board, to leave
him, and went into the house to warm ourselves. As we
sat around the wood fire I noticed a couple of herrings roast-
ing in the ashes for supper. Before Mr. Brown could answer
a question I put to him he was obliged to relieve his mouth
of its contents, and he discharged them squarely upon the
herrings, completely covering them. Nothing was said, and
I did not suppose that any one but myself noticed the catas-
trophe. After we had started for home, Mr. Brown turning
to me said, "Good heavens, Davis, did you see me baste those
herrings ?"

He told me once of an expedition to Sandwich to bring
home his wife's invalid sister, who had been visiting there.
He started one November morning about four o'clock, and
after driving two hours he came to a cross road, and seeing
a light in a house, stopped to inquire the way. On rapping at
the door a man appeared with a lamp in his hand, whom he
recognized as John Harlow, an old resident of Chiltonville.
"What are you doing, John, down here in Sandwich," he
asked, and John replied, " I guess, mister, your morning toddy
was a little strong, I am in Chiltonville, not Sandwich." Then
for the first time recognizing his visitor, he added, "Why, Mr.
Brown, what are you doing here at this time in the morning?"
"Why, John, I started for Sandwich, but at the rate of prog-
ress I have made I don't think I shall get there much before
night." The trouble was that his horse, following the track
which suited him best, had after leaving the Cornish tavern,
borne constantly to the left and traversed the Beaver Dam
road, and the road over the Pine Hills until he reached the
Harlow house, four miles from his starting point two hours

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 3OI

before. Mr. Brown married in 1837 Margaret, daughter of
George Washburn, and died June 23, 1877.

William H. Nelson was the son of William and Sarah (Car-
ver) Nelson, and was born August 13, 1830. After leaving
school he was a clerk for a time in the hardware establishment
of Cotton, Hill & Co., in Boston, but eventually established
himself in business in his native town. As well as I can re-
member he first embarked in the grand bank fishery, supple-
mented by the mackerel fishery. Gradually enlarging his fleet,
and also the size of his vessels, he extended his business opera-
tions by either chartering some of his vessels to Boston mer-
chants engaged in the West India trade, or engaging himself
in that trade. Building from time to time still larger vessels
which were employed entirely under charter, his fishing inter-
ests became a secondary matter. By prudence and sagacity,
his business was made successful and profitable, and as he
won the confidence of his fellow citizens, he was sought for in
the management of institutions and public affairs. He was a
director of the Old Colony National Bank many years, and
after the death of George Gustavus Dyer for a short time,
imtil his own death, its President. His chief service, and
one which made him respected, and his trustworthiness relied
upon by his fellow citizens, was that rendered by him on the
board of selectmen, of which he was a member for twenty
years, and chairman sixteen years. As manager of town affairs
he was conservative and faithful to his trust, never hasty in the
support of new schemes, but sure in the end to support them
when satisfied of their merit. He married Hannah Coomer,
daughter of Coomer Weston, Jr., and died July 18, 1891.

302 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

CHAPTER XXX.

I have thus far in my wanderings omitted to mention any
member of the Harlow family, scarcely one of whom can be
found on the north side of Town Brook. But in crossing the
brook I am at (Mice confronted by three Harlow houses, stand-
ing like sentinels to guard what may be considered their
family domain. These are the houses which in an earlier gen-
eration were occupied by Ephraim, Sylvanus and George Har-
low. In my study of family names I have often found them
confining themselves within certain town bounds. For in-
stance there are the names of Stetson, Gray and Willis in
Kingston; Sprague, Weston, Winsor and Soule in Duxbury;
Lobdell, Harrub and Parker in Plympton, and of Ransom and
Vaughan and Murdock in Carver, all like the clans of Scot-
land, keeping within their own borders. Nor were the limits
within which the various names were found always as broad
as the bounds of the towns. As for instance there were on
the north side of the brook the Jacksons, Russells, Hedges,
Spooners, Cottons, etc., and on the south side the Harlows,
Dotens, Stephens and Barnes, representatives of each suc-
ceeding generation, settling among the familiar scenes of their
youth. A hundred years, or perhaps more, ago, it was the
custom in town meeting to divide the house in voting on im-
portant questions, the affirmative voters gathering on the north
side, and the negative on the south. On one occasion after the
division, but before the count, the moderator called out — a
Ponds man on the wrong side of the house. When I see
the sign of C. B. Harlow on Market street I am tempted to
say, a Harlow man on the wrong side of the brook. In 1851
I was riding from Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Shelburne, and
stopped at the inn in Liverpool for dinner. While eating
alone, the landlord came into the dining room and entered into
conversation. I asked him his name, and he said, Bradford
Harlow, and in answer to my inquiry where he came from he
said, " You may guess a hundred times and you will not guess
right." "Well," I said, "I will venture to say that either you

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 303

or your father came from Plymouth in Massachusetts." "By
George," he exclaimed, pounding his hand down on the table,
"You have guessed right the first time." I then told him I
was a Plymouth man, and I did not believe such a combina-
tion of names could be found in any other town. His father
was a ship carpenter, who after the Revolution moved down
to Liverpool to work at his trade, and made that town his
future residence. For some reason, which I cannot satisfac-
torily explain, there was at that time quite a migration of ship
carpenters from Plymouth to Nova Scotia, which was made
practicable by the frequent resort of Plymouth ves-
sels bound to the fishing banks, to the harbors of Shel-
burne and Barrington and Liverpool. Among them
were William Drew, who went to Liverpool, and James
Cox, who went to Shelburne, the latter of whom married
there Elizabeth Rowland about the year 1800, and continued
there until his death. The late William Rowland Cox of
Chiltonville, a son of James, and a well known master car-
penter, came to Plymouth as long ago as I can remember, and
Martha Taylor, ta daughter, also came and married Ephraim
Bartlett, whose daughter Martha Ann, widow of the late Geo.
E. Morton, is a much respected resident of Plymouth.

Ephraim Harlow, above mentioned, was the son of Sylvan-
us and Desire (Sampson) Harlow, and was born in 1770. He
was somewhat extensively engaged in navigation and real
estate. In navigation he not only built one or more vessels
on his own account, but he was also associated with James
Bartlett, Jr., and others, in building the bark Fortune in 1822
for the whale fishery, and at a later period in building the
schooner Maracaibo, for the same business. In the early part
of the last century he owned in connection with his brother
Jesse, Nathaniel Carver, and Benjamin M. Watson all the
land on the west side of Pleasant street, between the brook and
Jefferson street extending back to the poor house land, the
northeasterly part of which, after sundry sales and divisions,
came into his sole possession. On this part he built the house
which he occupied until his death, on Robinson street in the
rear of the old Robinson church. In the rear of his house
he opened a Court in 1825, and built a house which was occu-
pied by James Morton, sexton of the Unitarian church, whom

304 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

I remember sitting during the service at the head of the
south pulpit stairs. Mr. Harlow was a man of tried probity
and intelligence, receptive of various measures of reform, such
as anti-slavery and temperance measures, which both he and
his family did much to support. He married in 1794 Jerusha,
daughter of Thos. Doten, and had Jerusha Howes, Ephraim,
Thos. Doten and Jabez. He married second, Ruth, daughter
of William Sturtevant of Carver and had Jane, 1808, who
married Atwood L. Drew, Hannah Shaw, 1810, who married
George Adams, Ruth Sturtevant, 181 5, whose early death was
lamented by a large circle of friends ; Zilpha Washburn, 1818,
who married Nathaniel Bourne Spooner, and Desire Samp*
son, 1821. He died December 15, 1859.

The house on the corner of Pleasant and Sandwich streets,
now occupied by William H. Harlow, was built by his grand-
father, Jesse Harlow, not long after the Revolution, and in
my early days was occupied by David Harlow, the father of
the present occupant, who kept a store there for many years.
David Harlow married in 1823, Eliza Sherman, daughter of
Lewis and Betsey (Weston) Finney, and had David L., who
married Lucy Cook of Kingston ; Isaac Newton, who married
Catherine Weston; Henry M., who married Sarah F. Cowen;
Ezra, who married Catherine Covington; Ann Eliza, Han-
nah, Pelham W., who married Etta H. Mayo; Edward P.,
who married Nancy Sanford of Taunton, and William H.,
who married Annie Gibbs of Providence. David Harlow died
July 22, 1859.

The house on Sandwich street, next but one to the David
Harlow house, "was built in 1825 by George Harlow, who
bought the lot on which it stands, in that year from the heirs
of Thomas Doty. George Harlow was the son of Samuel and
Remembrance (Holmes) Harlow, and was born in 1789. He
was in my day chiefly engaged in the Grand Bank fishery. He
married in 1813, Lydia, daughter of Nathaniel Ellis, and had
Nathaniel Ellis, 181 3, who married Julia A. Whiting of Ban-
gor; Lydia, 1819, who married Albert Tribble; Esther, 1821,
who married John Henry Hollis; George Henry, 1823, who
married Sarah E. Morton, and Samuel, who married Mary H.
Bradford. Mr. Harlow died May 9, 1865.

I must not wander far beyond the brook without a notice

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 305

of Rev. Adoniram Judson, the distinguished Baptist mission-
ary, who was a citizen of Plymouth from 1802 to 1812, and
who always, until his death, considered it his American home.
His father, Rev. Adoniram Judson, was born in Woodbury in
1751, and graduated at Yale in 1775. After settlements in
Maiden and Wenham he was settled, May 12, 1802, the first
pastor of the third Plymouth church near Training Green. Be-
fore coming to Plymouth he married Abigail, daughter of
Abraham Brown of Tiverton, and had four children, Adoni-
ram, Elnathan, Abigail Brown and Mary Alice. Elnathan,
born probably in Wenham in 1795, was a surgeon in the United
States Navy, and died in Washington May 8, 1829. Of Mary
Alice I know nothing. Abigail Brown was born in Maiden
March 21, 1791, and died in Plymouth, where since 1802 she
had always lived, January 25, 1884. I remember her well,
and many times called at her home to talk with her about her
brother, Adoniram, and his missionary service. She was a
calm, placid woman, with a saintly face, and in everything but
speech resembled a Quakeress. The last time I saw her she
was crossing Town Square on a hot summer day, wearing a
green calash pulled down by the ribbon loop attached to its
front, to protect her face from the rays of the sun. The
father continued his pastorate until 1817, when becoming a
Baptist he resigned, and after preaching for the Plymouth
Baptists, then worshipping in Old Colony Hall, previous to
the erection of their meeting house on Spring street in 1822,
he removed in 1820 to Scituate, where he died November 28,
1826. During his Plymouth pastorate he became the owner
of all the lots of land on the west side of Pleasant street,
which for a time was called Judson street, from the lot now
owned by Chas. P. Hatch to Jefferson street inclusive. On
the Hatch lot he built and occupied the house, which with con-
siderable alteration is now standing, and in 1808 sold it to his
daughter, Abigail, who made it her home until her death in
1884. Rev. Adoniram Judson, the missionary, son of Rev.
Adoniram and Abigail (Brown) Judson, was born in Maiden,
August 9, 1788, and graduated at Brown University in 1807.
After leaving college he taught a private school two years in
Plymouth, where he published the "Young Ladies' Arithmetic,"
and a work on English Grammar. Until 1810 his religious

306 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

views were unsettled, but in that year he joined his father's
church, and after a short time at the Andover Seminary was
admitted to preach by the Orange Association of Congrega-
tional ministers in Vermont. Having determined to enter the
missionary service, he sailed for England with the view of
making the necessary arrangements, and was captured by a
French privateer, and after a short imprisonment at Bayonne,
reached England, returning in 1811, and being ordained as mis-
sionary at Salem, February 6, 1812. He married February
5, 1812, Ann Hazeltine, of Bradford, Mass., and daughter of
John and Rebecca Hazeltine, and sailed for Calcutta on the
19th of that month. Soon after reaching India he became a
Baptist, and severing his connection with the American Board
he was baptized by Dr. Carey, the English missionary at Se-
rampore. When the war broke out between the East India
Company and the Burman Government, Dr. Judson was arrest-
ed for alleged complicity with the English, and suffered a
long imprisonment, during which a child, Maria E. B. Judson,
was born, who died April 24, 1827, at the age of two years
and three months. Mrs. Judson died at Amherst, Burman
Empire, October 24, 1826. In 1834 he married Sarah Hall
Boardman, widow of Rev. George Dana Boardman, and daugh-
ter of Ralph and Abiah Hall of Alstead, N. H., who died on
her way to America at St. Helena, September 1, 1845. ^n ^e
autumn of that year Eh". Judson made his first and only visit
to the United States, where he remained until July, 1846.
During that visit it was my privilege to meet him. At that
time the mail stage for Boston, leaving Plymouth at half past
ten, met the accommodation stage leaving Boston at eleven
o'clock, and the passengers dined together at the half way
house in West Scituate, and there I met and sat next to him at
the dinner table. He was rather above the average height,
had brown hair, a smooth face, and an expression indicative of
a life of serious thought and sad experience. He reminded
me of portraits of Charles the First, and also of the portrait
now in Pilgrim Hall of Governor Josiah Winslow, in both of
which is depicted the expression to which I have referred.
During his visit he married in June, 1846, Emily Chubbuck, a
native of Eaton, N. Y., known in the literary world as Fanny
Forester, and sailed with her for India in the following month.

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 3O7

By his second wife his children were Adoniram, Elnathan,
Henry, Edward and Abby Ann, and by his third wife, a daugh-
ter, Emily, who married a Mr. Hanna. Dr. Judson died at sea
April 12, 1850, and his widow returning to America in 1851,
died June 1, 1854. His great literary works were a Burmese
translation of the Scriptures, and a Burmese English diction-
ary.

Ichabod, son of Ichabod and Sarah (Churchill) Morton, was
born in Plymouth in 'January, 1790. He always lived in
Wellingsley, but precisely where he was born I am unable to
say. His father built the House now owned by the heirs of
Edwin Morton, when Ichabod was a year old, and there he
lived until he bought in 1829 the house in which he died. For
many years he kept with his brother Edwin, a general store in
a building which was erected and occupied as a dwelling house
by Eleazer Churchill. The firm of I. & E. Morton early added
to their business that of the Grand Bank fishery, and also built
vessels engaged in coatwise and foreign trade. They were the
earliest traders in Plymouth to abandon the sale of intoxi-
cating liquors, and among the first to join the movement against
the institution of slavery. Mr. Morton became also much
interested in the cause of education, and in town meetings
strongly advocated increasing appropriations for the support
of public schools. When the policy was adopted by the state
of establishing Normal schools, he only needed the co-operation
of the leading men in Plymouth to make his own earnest efforts
successful in securing the location here of the school which
was established in Bridgewater. Horace Mann publicly rec-
ognized in him one of his ablest coadjutors in the cause of ed-
ucation. For a short time his business was interrupted by his
association with the Brook Farm enterprise, but the dreams of
that social experiment soon gave way to the practical pursuits
of business life. He married Patty, daughter of Coomer
Weston, and had November 22, 182 1, a daughter, Abigail, who
married Manuel A. Diaz. He married second Betsey, daughter
of Gideon Holbrook, and had George E., 1829, Nathaniel,
1831, Ichabod, 1833, Austin, 1834, and Howard, 1836, and
died May 10, 1861. Mrs. Diaz, well known as a writer, died
in Belmont in the spring of 1904, and was buried at Mount
Auburn.

308 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

One of the measures in which at one time Mr. Morton was
much interested, was that for a division of the town. In 1855,
at the time when the construction of town water works was
decided, it was supposed by many in the south part of the town
that the pecuniary burden which the enterprise would impose
on the town, it was their duty to adopt every means to escape.
Henry W. Cushman, who had been Lieutenant Governor of
Massachusetts from 1851 to 1853, had expressed a desire for
the incorporation of a town bearing his name, and it was under-
stood that the christening might confer a financial benefit on
the town so named. It was thought therefore that the time was
a favorable one to have the southerly part of the town set off
under the name of Cushman. If I remember rightly the divid-
ing line- asked for in the petition of Caleb Morton and others
ran from the harbor, through Winter and Mount Pleasant
streets. Favorable reports were made in both 1855 and 1856,
but the bills recommended for passage were rejected. Mr.
Morton took an active part in urging the division, but I suspect
that neither he nor any person now living regretted the issue.

Two other attempts to divide the town have been made since
Kingston was set off and incorporated in 1726. In 1783 ten
heads of families representing themselves as composing one-
sixth of the precinct of Manomet Ponds petitioned the General
Court to have Cedarville and Ellisville set off to Sandwich.
The petitioners who were given leave to withdraw were, Seth
Mendall, Wm. Ellis, Thomas Ellis, Eleazer Ellis, Barnabas
Ellis, Phineas Swift, Samuel Morris, Prince Wadsworth, Sam-
uel Gibbs and Catherine Swift. Another movement in favor
of a division was started in 1837, but when brought before the
town it was defeated by a vote of 376 to 246.

While the question of the division was pending in 1855 and
1856, 1 was chairman of the Board of Selectmen, and of course
was cognizant of all that was done to defeat the measure. In
those days the members of the legislature remained during the
week in Boston, or its immediate vicinity, only going home to
spend the Sabbath. The board invited them to make an ex-
cursion to Plymouth on Fast Day, and entertained them at the
Samoset House. It is neediess to say that the argument was
conclusive. A more difficult task awaited the board the next
year to oppose a petition to change the shire to Bridgewater.

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 309

As soon as the legislature of 1857 came together, the board of
which I was still chairman, placed printed remonstrances in the
hands of reliable men in every town in the county, which pour-
ed into the legislature bearing, I* think, the names of a majority
of the voters of the county. A similiar petition was sent to
the legislature at a time earlier than I can remember, headed
by Col. Sylvanus Lazell of Bridgewater, who unfamiliar with
the meaning of words, claimed that Plymouth had been a sea-
port long enough, an<J that it was Bridgewater's turn. At that
time a resolve was passed by the legislature requiring the sub-
mission of two questions to the voters of the county : First,
are you in favor of a removal of the shire, and second, in what
town shall the shire be located. In answer to these questions
a majority voted for a removal, and singularly enough, a ma-
jority also voted in favor of Plymouth for the location. With
the erection of a Court house in Brockton, and the erection of
a Registry in Plymouth, I think the crisis is passed, and that
no further attempts will be made to remove the shire. The in-
creasing population of Plymouth will serve to check the dis-
turbance of the equilibrium of the county, which the growth of
Brockton has heretofore caused.

3IO PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

CHAPTER XXXI.

The following professional men have not heretofore been
mentioned in these memories :

Dr. F. G. Oehme, a German homeopathic physician, came to
Plymouth about 1857, and occupied for a time the house on
Middle street, now owned by Charles H. Frink, and later
bought the house on Court street occupied in recent years by
George E. Morton. He had an office at one time in the sec-
ond story of the building on Main street, now occupied by H.
H. Cole. He sold his dwelling house in 1873 to Martha T.
Bartlett, the widow of Ephraim Bartlett, and removed to Long
Island, from thence going to Portland, Oregon, where he died
in 1905.

Dr. Ervin Webster, born in Vermont, January 25, 1828, came
to Plymouth in 1850, and established himself as a botanic phy-
sician in the rooms on Main street, now occupied by Loring's
watchmaker's store. With his son, Olin E., four years of age,
he was drowned in Billington Sea, August 28, 1856.

Dr. George F. Wood, son of Isaac Lewis and Elizabeth
(Robbins) Wood, was born in Plymouth, March 12, 1841. He
married Sarah E., daughter of Sylvanus Harvey, and estab-
lished himself as a physician in an office on the North side of
Town Square. He died October 27, 1868.

Dr. Nathaniel Lothrop, son of Isaac and Priscilla (Thomas)
(Watson) Lothrop, was born in Plymouth in 1737, and grad-
uated at Harvard in 1756. He married first, Ellen, daughter
of Noah Hobart of Fairfield, Conn., and second, Lucy, daugh-
ter of Abraham Hammatt of Plymouth, and died October 9,
1828.

Dr. Robert Capen taught a private school in Plymouth in
1828, and in 1830 was practising medicine with an office in the
Marcy house, which stood on North street, where Dr. W. G.
Brown's house stands. I do not know either the date or place
of his death.

Dr. Mercy B. Jackson, widow of Daniel Jackson, belonged to
the Homeopathic school and practiced in Plymouth and Boston,
and died in 1877.

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 311

Dr. Isaac LeBaron, known in my day as an apothecary, was
always called Doctor, but I do not know that he was educated
as a physician. He lived through my early youth in a house
standing on the upper corner of Leyden street and LeBaron
Alley, and had his shop in a one story building on Main street,
where Dr. Hubbard's house now stands. At a later time he
lived in the house on the corner of North and Main streets, and
had his shop in the same building. He married in 181 1 Mary
Doane of Boston, and died, January 29, 1849.

Dr. Parker came to Plymouth about 1882 and occupied for a
short time the house now owned by Arthur Lord, but whence
he came and where he went I do not know.

Dr. Warren Peirce succeeded Dr. Parker, and occupied the
same house until it was sold to Mr. Lord, when he moved to the
house at the lower angle of Carver street. He was born in
Tyngsboro, Mass., Nov. 30, 1840, and graduated at the Har-
vard Medical School in 1869. He enlisted May 11, 1864, in
Co. K First Regiment of Heavy Artillery of Massachusetts,
and was appointed Hospital steward. After he received his
degree he practised some years in Boylston or West Boylston.
He was the son of Dr. Augustus and Alectia (Butterfield)
Peirce. His father was born in New Salem March 13, 1803,
and died in 1849. Dr. Warren Peirce died in Plymouth, July
10, 1898.

Dr. Francis B. Brewer had in 1850 an office at the corner of
Main and Middle streets, but I do not know whether he was
engaged in general practise or exclusively in that of dentistry.
He was succeeded in the same year by Dr. Robert D. Foster,
who advertised himself as having had "the most ample exper-
ience in operative surgery, both in England and the United
States."

In September, 1855, Dr. James L. Hunt occupied the office
which Dr. Brewer and Dr. Foster had occupied, but I know
neither his specialty nor the length of his service in Plymouth.

Dr. Andrew Mackie, son of Dr. Andrew of Wareham, was
born in 1799, and graduated at Brown in 1814. He came to
Plymouth in 1829, and lived on the corner of Market and Ley-
den streets, and in the house next below the rooms of Mr. Bea-
man on Middle street. He removed to New Bedford soon
after 1832.

$12 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

Dr. John Havel Gaylord, son of Ebenezer and Jane (Phelps)
Gaylord, was born in Amherst, Mass., March 22, 1852. He
fitted for college at the Hopkin's Grammar school and grad-
uated at Yale in 1876. He took his degree from the Yale
Medical school in 1878, and completed his studies in 1879 and
1880 at the University of Berlin, and at Heilbronn. On his
return home he practised a few years in Qncinnati, and settled
in Plymouth in 1889, where he married Susan, daughter of
William Rider Drew, and died April 14, 1903.

Dr. Charles James Wood came to Plymouth in 1866 and set-
tled in Chiltonville. He was son of Leonard Wood, and was
born in Leicester, Mass., February 18, 1827, and was educated
at the Leicester Academy. He practised in Barre, Chilton-
ville, Sandwich and Pocasset, in which latter place he died Aug-
ust 25, 1880. I remember him as attending with Dr. Alex-
ander Jackson in Manomet Ponds, the sailors who were wreck-
ed in the bark Velma in 1867. He was the father of General
Leonard Wood, now in the Philippines, who attended school in
Chiltonville.

Dr. John C. Bennett appeared in Plymouth in 1835, and ad-
vertised himself an eclectic physician "formerly professor of
obsteric medicine and surgery." The various medicines pre-
pared by him were claimed to be infallible ones for many dis-
eases ; and of a tooth extractor invented by him, it was said by
an enthusiastic friend that it made the extraction of a tooth an
operation of pleasure instead of pain. He married Sally,
daughter of Job Rider of Plymouth, and lived and had his office
on Summer street. The introduction by him of the Plymouth
Rock breed of fowls gave him a reputation of a more substan-
tial character than his medicines. In 1842 he published "The
History of the Saints," an expose of Joe Smith and Mormon-
ism.

Dr. John Bachelder, son of John and Mary Bachelder, was
born in Mason, N. H., March 23, 1818, and graduated at Dart-
mouth in 1 841. He began to practice in Monument in 1844,
and married Martha Swift Keene of Sandwich, September 30,
1846, afterwards removing to Plymouth, where he died Octo-
ber 28, 1876.

Of Dr. Benjamin Hubbard I make an exception among the
living physicians, and include in these memories a notice due

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 3X3

to his age and long practice in Plymouth. He was born in
Holden, Mass., November 25, 1817, the son of Benjamin and
Polly (Walker) Hubbard. He came to Plymouth in 1840 and
studied medicine with his brother, Dr. Levi Hubbard, and af-
ter attending one term at the college at Woodstock, Vt., grad-
uated at the Pittsfield Medical college in 1844. After receiv-
ing his degree he practiced six months in South Weymouth,
and then came to Plymouth, succeeding his brother, who re-
moved in the autumn of 1844 to New Bedford. Aside from
his practice he has been assiduous in his devotion to the welfare
of the Baptist Society, which owes him a debt which it grate-
fully acknowledges, but can never repay. He married June
29, 1844, Ellen Maria, daughter of Elisha Perry of Sandwich,
and is enjoying in a serene old age the love and respect of the
community, whom for more than sixty years he has faithfully
served.

William Davis, son of Nathaniel Morton and Harriet Lazell
(Mitchell) Davis, was born in Plymouth May 12, 1818. He
fitted for college at the Boston Latin school, and graduated
at Harvard in 1837. He studied law with his father, and at
the Harvard Law school, and was admitted to the Suffolk bar
January 18, 1 841. In those days it was the custom in the
Harvard Law school to hold a moot court once each winter for
which the jury was drawn from the senior class in college, and
lots were drawn among the senior law students for the posi-
tions of senior and junior counsel on each side. William M.
Evarts was in the law school, and having come from Yale col-
lege with a high reputation for eloquence, it was taken for
granted that if unsuccessful in the drawing, one of the success-
ful ones would surrender his place to him. Mr. Davis, one of
the successful ones, declined to give up his position as senior
counsel for the defendant, but a place was given to Mr. Evarts
as senior counsel for the plaintiff. As Mr. Davis lived in Bos-
ton with his grandmother, he was little known by his fellow
students, and when the trial came on the lecture room of the
school was crowded with law students and undergraduates to
hear the eloquent man from Yale. I was one of the jury, and
I remember well the astonishment with which the masterly
speech of Mr. Davis was received. Some years afterwards
Mr. Richard H. Dana, who was a member of the law school at

312 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

Dr. John Havel Gaylord, son of E|r 2 xxA was

Gaylord, was born in Amherst, WZ s /arts was

fitted for college at the Hopkir/jf # isture and

uated at Yale in 1876. He - ■// an ^was who

Medical school in 1878, an^;/^ /ale.

1880 at the University a'*//'/ at the bar in-

return home he practip/////' ^ l°ag sentences,

in Plymouth in 18P >^ // 0 "" * escape from his

William Rider Dr // + * nominative. He

Dr. Charles Jy ** * his rhetoric that in

tied in Quite ^uner fn the dock was the

born in Le* ~^ng sentences. He was a man

at the 1/ wretary of state in the cabinet of Presi-

ville, S ^ never had wine on his table no matter who

ust ' touests, he said one day to a lady sitting next to him

ar lfle state dinner, when the Roman punch was served— "Ah,
' liave reached the life saving station." The next day when
$ friend asked him how the dinner went off he said, "Splendid-
ly, water flowed like champagne."

Returning from this digression, Mr. Davis settled in Plym-
outh, and was appointed in 1844 aide with the rank of Lieuten-
ant Colonel on the staff of Governor George N. Briggs, and in
1850, 1851 and 1852, was chairman of the Board of Selectmen.
From 1844 to 1852, he was Vice-President of the Pilgrim So-
ciety, and from 1848 to 1850 inclusive, a Director of the Plym-
outh Bank. He married December 2, 1849, Helen, daughter
of John and Deborah (Spooner) Russell, and had Harriet
Mitchell in September, 1850, who died in December, 1852, and
William, September 27, 1853. He died February 19, 1853.

William H. Whitman, son of Kilborn and Elizabeth (Wins-
low) Whitman, was born in Pembroke, January 26, 1817. He
studied law with Thomas Prince Beal of Kingston, and began
practice in Bath, Maine, where his sister, Sarah Ann, the wife
of Benjamin Randall lived. He moved to Boston in 1844*
where he practiced law until 1851, a part of the time a partner
of Charles G. Davis. In 1851 he was appointed clerk of the
Courts of Plymouth County, and continued in office until his
death. He married in 1846, Ann Sever, daughter of William
and Sally W. Thomas, and had Isabella Thomas, Elizabeth H.
and William Thomas. He married second, Helen, widow of

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 3 1 £

and daughter of John Russell, and had Russell,

\nn Thomas. He died August 13, 1889.

?>. Wayward was born in Thetford, Vt., August

iuated at Dartmouth College in 1859. He

sse E. Keith of Abington and Charles G.

and was admitted to the Plymouth bar

< ^ * practiced one year in Plymouth, then

. ' .:> *'• finally moved to New York in 1865,

^me to Plymouth from Rbxbury

.^11 School, and while teaching, stud-

- admitted to the Plymouth bar in 1848, and

easiness in Plymouth until his death. He married

~y i, 183 1, Catherine Hinsdale, daughter of Nathan Allen of
Medfield and Dedham, but I find no record of his death.

William F. Spear, son of Wm. H. ancl Catherine H. (Allen)
Spear, was born in June, 1832, and was admitted to the Plym-
outh bar in 1853. He married Caroline Augusta, daughter
of Elisha Whiting, and died in Plymouth, September 21, 1858.

There was an Edward L. Sherman practicing law in Plym-
outh about fifty years ago, but I know nothing about him. He
may have been the Edward Lowell Sherman, a Harvard grad-
uate of 1854, who was admitted to the Essex bar in 1856, and
was practicing in Boston in i860, and until his death in 1893.

Isaac Goodwin, son of William and Lydia Cushing (Samp-
son) Goodwin, was born in Plymouth, June 28, 1786. He
studied law with Joshua Thomas, and began practice in Boston,
afterwards removing to Sterling, and in 1826 to Worcester.
In 1825 he published a book entitled "The Town Officer," and
in 1830 another on the duties of a sheriff, which was followed
by a general history of Worcester County, written for the Wor-
cester Magazine. At the 150th anniversary of the destruction
of the town of Lancaster he delivered the oration. He mar-
ried in 1810, Eliza, daughter of Abraham Hammatt, and had
Lucy Lothrop, 181 1; Elizabeth Mason 181 3, Wm.Hammatt,
1817, John Emery, 1820, John Abbot, 1824, Mary Jane, 1834,
who married Loriftg Henry Austin of Boston, and was the well
known authoress. He died September 10, 1832.

Rev. Dr. Joseph Sylvester Clark, son of Seth and Mary
(Tupper) Clark, was born in Manomet Ponds, December 19,

316 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

1800. Dr. Clark was born in a house nearly opposite the res-
idence of the late Horace B. Taylor. His brother Israel, one
of the purest of men, was on the board of selectmen wkh me
in 1855, and lived at the time in the old homestead.

In 1818 Rev. Seth Stetson, the pastor of the Manomet
church, became Unitarian, and in the temporary division of the
church which followed, Dr. Clark's father was one of Mr. Stet-
son's followers. As late as 1819 it seems to be certain that
the son had not been able to believe in the divinity of Christ,
and he did not become a member of the church until June 9,
1822, after which time he was a member in full standing of the
Orthodox Congregational church. At the age of seventeen
Dr. Clark taught school in Manomet, and soon after in Hing-
ham, and by his earnings as a teacher and the moderate assist-
ance which his father could afford to render, he was enabled to
enter the classical academy at Amherst on the 29th of July,
1822, and to enter Amherst college in September, 1823, where
he graduated in due course with valedictory honors. In 1827,
after a short service as tutor at Amherst, he entered the An-
dover theological seminary, and after intervals spent in teach-
ing school, graduated in 183 1. On the second of October,
183 1, he preached at Sturbridge, Mass., and on the twenty-
seventh was unanimously invited to become the successor of
Rev. Alvan Bond in that town. His ordination followed on the
twenty-first of December. On the twenty-eighth of May, 1839,
he was appointed secretary of the Massachusetts Missionary
Society, and severing his connection with the Sturbridge par-
ish, he entered on the discharge of the duties of secretary con-
tinuing them until his resignation on the twenty-third of Sept-
ember, 1857. In 1858 he published "A Historical sketch of the
Congregational churches of Massachusetts from 1620 to 1858.
Dr. Park said of him "his experience in the Home Missionary
work convinced him that Congregationalists had sacrificed the
spiritual welfare of their own churches to an ill-regarded zeal
for harmony with other denominations. They had cultivated
such a dread of sectarianism as induced them to abandon their
own distinctive principles for the sake of living in peace with
sectarians who became the more exclusive as Congregational-
ists became the more liberal."

At the time of the formation of the Congregational Library

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 317

Association, he was chosen its Corresponding Secretary in
May, 1853, an<* its financial agent in June, 1857, and soon after
united with Rev. H. M. Dexter, and Rev. A. H. Quint, in pub-
lishing the Congregational quarterly, the first number of which
was issued in January, 1859. To his unremitting labors was
largely due the consummation of the project to buy for the
Association the Crowninshield building, which it long occupied
on the corner of Beacon and Somerset streets in Boston. In
185 1 he received from his Alma Mater the degree of Doctor of
Divinity, and in 1852 was chosen a trustee of the college. He
married December 27, 1831, Harriet B., daughter of Joseph
Bourne of New Bedford, and died at the home of his brothers,
Israel and Nathaniel, at Manomet, August 17, 1861.

Rev. Ezra Shaw Goodwin, son of General Nathaniel and
Ruth (Shaw) Goodwin, was born in Plymouth in 1787, and
was settled as pastor of the first church in Sandwich. He
married Ellen Watson, daughter of John Davis, and died in
Sandwich, February 5, 1833.

Rev. Hersey Bradford Goodwin, son of William and Lydia
Cushing (Sampson) Goodwin, was born in Plymouth, and
graduated at Harvard in 1826. He graduated at the Harvard
Divinity school in 1829, and was settled in Concord. He
married in 1830, Lucretia Ann, daughter of Benjamin Marston
Watson of Plymouth, and had Wm. Watson, 183 1. He
married second, Amelia Mackie of Boston, and had Amelia
and Hersey Bradford, and died in 1836.

Rev. Thomas Weston, son of Coomer and Hannah (Doten)
Weston, was born in Plymouth, August 30, 1821. He pre-
pared for the ministry at the Meadville school in Pennsylvania,
and was settled at various times over Unitarian societies in
Northumberland, Penn., Bernardston and New Salehi, Mass.,
Farmington, Maine, and Barnstable and Stowe, Mass. He
married April 29, 1852 Lucinda, daughter of Ralph Cushman
of Bernardston, and died in Greenfield, Mass., March 29, 1904.

Rev. James Augustus Kendall, son of Rev. Dr. James and
Sarah (Poor) Kendall, was born in Plymouth, Nov. 1, 1803,
and graduated at Harvard in 1823. He was settled in Medfield
six years, and after spending a short time in Stowe and Cam-
bridge, he removed to Framingham, where he married May 29,
1833, Maria B., daughter of Col. James Brown, and died May
16, 1884.

318 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

Rev. Sylvester Holmes, son of Sylvester and Grace (Clark)
Holmes, was born in Manomet Ponds April 6, 1788, and was
ordained as minister in 181 1. He was for many years engaged
in the service of the American Bible Society, especially in the
South, where he was everywhere known among leading men
of both church and state. From 1861, until 1866, he was set-
tled over the church at Manomet Ponds, where he married in
1810 Esther Holmes. He married a second wife, Fanny King-
man of Bridgewater, and died in New Bedford at the house of
Ivory H. Bartlett, November 27, 1866.

Rev. William Faunce, son of Solomon and Eleanor (Brad-
ford) Faunce, was born in Plymouth about 1815. In 1840 he
organized a Christian Baptist Society, and built a meeting
house near the Russell Mills. After a long pastorate he re-
moved to Mattapoisett, where he died about ten years ago. He
married Matilda, daughter of Josiah Bradford, and had Ma-
tilda B., 1835, who married Weston C. Vaughan, William,
1837, and Ellen, 1840.

Rev. Lewis Holmes, son of Peter and Sally (Harlow)
Holmes, was born in Plymouth, April 12, 1813, and graduated
at Colby University. He had settlements at various times
over Baptist Societies in Edgartown, Scituate, Leicester and
other places. He married Lydia K., daughter of Pickels Cush-
ing of Norwell, and died May 24, 1887.

Rev. Russell Tomlinson, son of David and Polly (Sherman)
Tomlinson was born in Newtown, Conn., October 1, 1808, and
after fitting for the ministry was settled pastor over a Univer-
salist Society in Buffalo, N. Y. In September, 1838 he
came to Plymouth, where he was settled in May, 1839, pastor
of the Unversalist church as the sucessor of Rev. Albert Case.
In 1867 he resigned his pastorate, continuing to live in Plym-
outh until his death, and devoting himself to the practice of
homeopathy, and the advocacy of the cause of temperance.
He married Harriet W., daughter of Charles and Mary Ann
(Williams) May, and died March 4, 1878.

Rev. George Ware Briggs, son of William and Sally (Pal-
mer) Briggs, was born in Little Compton, April 8, 1810, and
graduated at Brown University in 1825. He graduated af
the Harvard Divinity school in 1834, and was soon after set-
tled in Fall River. In 1838 he was installed colleague pastor

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 319

of Rev. Dr. Jas. Kendall of the First Church in Plymouth, con-
tinuing in that pastorate until 1852. January 6, 1853, he be-
came pastor of the First Chuch in Salem. On the first of
April, 1867, he resigned the Salem pastorate, and in that year
became pastor of the Third Congregational Church in Cam-
bridge, located in Cambridge Port, where he remained until his
death, having a colleague in his later years. He married first
Lucretia Archbald, daughter of Abner Bartlett, and second
in 1849, Lucia J., daughter of Nathaniel Russell of Plymouth.
He received the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity from
Harvard in 1855, and died in Plymouth, September 10, 1895.

Rev. Daniel F. Goddard, son of Daniel and Polly (Finney)
Goddard, was born in Plymouth about 1828, and married in
1854 Mary E., daughter of Ellis Barnes. He studied for the
ministry, and was settled in various places, including, I think,
Harvard and Weymouth. He died in 1883.

Rev. Dr. Daniel Wooster Faunce, son of Peleg and Olive
(Finney) Faunce, was born in Plymouth, January 3, 1829, and
graduated at Amherst in 1850. He studied for the ministry
at the Newton Theological Institute, and was ordained in
1853. He married, August 15, 1853, Mary P. Perry, and in
J871 Mary E. Tucker. He was settled in Washington, D. C,
and Pawtucket, R. I., and was the author of as number of re-
ligious works. His home is now in Providence, near that of
his son, Rev. Wm. Herbert Perry Faunce, President of Brown
University.

320 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

CHAPTER XXXII.

Mention of Plymouth grave yards has been confined thus far
to a slight allusion to Cole's Hill. Of the many within the
limits of the town two are burial places of the aborigines,
Watson's Hill and High Cliff, and the numerous skeletons ex-
humed at those places from time to time, make it conclusive
that they were places set apart for the burial of the dead. The
grounds in and about the central town have been thoroughly
explored in laying out streets, in excavating cellars and digging
trenches for water, gas and sewer pipes, and not enough Indian
bones have been found to warrant the conclusion that any other
burial places were used by the Indians than those above men-
tioned. The discovery of the burial ground at High Cliff was
brought to my knowledge by an incident in my own experience.
I met one day in the autumn of 1844 on Court street a little
girl about six years of age, crying and bleeding at the mouth.
An older girl leading her told me that she had a pin in her
throat. I led her to her home on South Russell street, stop-
ping on the way at Mr. Standish's blacksmith shop to borrow
a pair of pincers, and soon relieved her from her suffering.
The next day Mr. Orin Bosworth, learning that I was his little
daughter's friend, gave me as a reward for my service a stone
pipe, which he said a gang of laborers, of whom he was fore-
man, had found in the railroad cut at High Cliff. I visited
the spot at once, and found that seven or eight skeletons had
been found, indicating an extensive burial ground, undoubtedly
antedating the days of the Pilgrims. Some years afterwards,
after the establishment of the Agassiz Museum in Cambridge,
the pipe was examined by the experts of the Museum and
pronounced of European workmanship, probably brought over
and given to the Indians, either by European fishermen, or
by one of the early adventurers like Champlain, John Smith
or Thomas Dermer. It is made of stone about eight inches
long, with a bowl about an inch square, and is in perfect order.
I have quite recently seen a drawing of a fragment of a similar
pipe which was found between the floor timbers of the Spar-

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 32I

row-hawk, wrecked on Cape Cod in 1626, the timbers of which
have been put together, and are now in Pilgrim Hall. The
burial ground in question owes its escape from forgetfulness
to the pin in the throat of little Hannah Elizabeth Bosworth.

Passing by Burial Hill and Cole's Hill to be mentioned later,
there are Oak Grove and Vine Hills cemeteries; the Catholic
cemetery; two burial grounds in Chiltonville, one at Bram-
hall's corner, and one at the Russell Mills meeting house;
three at Manomet, one where the first meeting house stood not
far from the residence of the late Horace B. Taylor, one at
the present meeting house, a modern Indian burial ground,
on an Indian reservation on the westerly side of Fresh Pond \
one at South Ponds, near the Chapel ; one -at the head of Half
Way Ponds ; one at the head of Long Pond ; one near Bloody
Pond, and one at Cedarville There are also burial places in
the South part of the town, which have been devoted to fam-
ily uses and single graves may be found near Hospital land-
ing at Billington Sea, and on the South Pond road, where
the old pest house stood. At the last place there is a head-
stone at the grave of Mary, wife of Thomas Mayhew, who
died September 3, 1776, aged 54 years. She was a daughter
of Thomas Witherell, and as her husband was one of the most
prominent men in the town, it is probable that she died of small
pox, and that the removal of her body to a grave among her
deceased relatives was thought dangerous.

I take the liberty to suggest that the selectmen set up a
bronze tablet in the Indian burial ground at Fresh Pond with
the following inscription, including an extract from a poem
by the Rev. Theodore Dwight ;

"Indian Burial Ground."
"This tablet is erected in memory of the Indian tribes whose ex-
tinction, beginning in the Plymouth Colony, is now almost complete."
"Indulge my native land, indulge a tear,
That steals impassioned o'er a nation's doom;
To me each twig from Adam's stock is dear,
And sorrows fall on an Indian's tomb."

With regard to Cole's Hill, the impression has prevailed
that burials there were confined to the winter of 1620 and
1 62 1. After a somewhat thorough examination of evidence
and probabilities. I have reached the conclusion that this im-
presssion is not correct. I have already stated that no record

322 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

exists of the discovery of the remains of white men except on
Cole's and Burial HilL Pretty thorough explorations beneath
the surface of the ground, in or near the main town settle-
ment, prove with reasonable certainty that one of these two
places was during the early years of the Plymouth Colony the
place of burial. It is an interesting fact that the Pilgrims,
unlike the Puritans, followed the English custom of burying
their dead in the church yard, a spot as near as possible to
their place of worship. In Duxbury the first meeting house
was built near the shore, not far from the base of Captain's
Hill, and the first burials were made immediately about it. In
Marshfield the first meeting house was built near the tomb
of Daniel Webster, and what is called the Winslow burial
ground, which incloses that tomb, was the church yard. There
is every reason to believe that the same custom prevailed in
Plymouth. The Common house was for many years used for
public worship, except in times of impending dangers when
resort was temporarily had to the fort, on what is now Burial
Hill, and Cole's Hill, sloping down to that house lying directly
at its base was the church yard. As long then as the Com-
mon House was the place of public worship, I cannot doubt
that Cole's Hill was the burial place, and that when the first
meeting house was built on the North side of Town Square,
Burial Hill sloping down to its walls, became the church yard
and the place for depositing the bodies of the dead.

In this view of the case it becomes important, in deciding
when burials ceased to be made on Cole's Hill, to ascertain
when the first meeting house proper was built. Upon this
question there has been a difference of opinion, some writers
saying 1637, and some 1647. Those fixing the time at 1647
have based their opinion, so far as I can discover, on the his-
toric record that the town meeting held in May, 1649 was held
in the meeting house, and on the fact that the meeting house
was then for the first time mentioned as the place for holding
town meetings. The meeting held on the 10th of July, 1638, is
recorded as having been held in the Governor's house, and it is
asked by the advocates of the later date why should that meet-
ing have been held in the Governor's house if the meeting
house was built in 1637. It must be remembered that the pur-
pose of the meeting house was not to furnish a place for civic

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 323

meetings, but a place for religious worship, and that only the
increasing numbers of the settlement in 1649 outgrew the
capacity of the Governor's house, and rendered the use of
the meeting house at that time one of necessity. And again
it must be remembered that with the single exception of
the meeting, July 16, 1638, no meeting place is mentioned until
May 17, 1649, ^d for all that is known to the contrary, meet-
ing after meeting before 1649 may have been held in the meet-
ing house without any record of the meeting place. Mr. Good-
win in a foot note on page 231 of the "Pilgrim Republic/*
makes it appear that the record states that the meeting of May
17, 1649, was h^d *n the new meeting house, but the word
(new) is not in the record, and therefore adds no weight to
the argument in support of the date of 1647. The question
may be pertinently asked, "Why, if the meeting house was
built in 1647 was >ts occupation for town meetings delayed
until May 17, 1649?" ^d this question is as difficult to answer
as the other, "Why was it not earlier devoted to civic uses if it
was built in 1637."

The probabilities in favor of 1637 are too strong to be
overcome. Until 1636, after the settlement of Duxbury was
made, it was a mooted question whether the meeting house
should not be built in some place midway between the two set-
tlements. A decision was reached in that year, and at once the
meeting house in Duxbury was built in 1637, making it probable
that Plymouth followed and built its meeting house in the
same year. It would be a severe reflection on the religious
spirit and enterprise of the Plymouth people to suppose that
Duxbury built its house of worship in 1637, and Marshfield in
1641, while the erection of the meeting house of the parent
church of which Wm. Brewster was the Elder, was delayed
ten years longer.

But we are not left alone to probabilities. In the will of
William Palmer, executed in November, 1637, and probated
in the following March, is a clause providing for the pay-
ment "of somewhat to the meeting house in Plymouth."

Thus then in my opinion Burial Hill became the church yard
in 1637. It retained its name of Fort Hill many years, and
under that name extended across what is now Russell street
along the rear of the estates on the west side of Court street.

324 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

At a town meeting held on the 14th of May, 171 1, it was
voted to sell "all the common lands about the fort hills reserv-
ing sufficient room for a burying place." From that time
Burial Hill has remained practically within its present limits.
But it is asked why is the headstone of Edward Gray bearing
the date of 1681 the oldest stone on the hill. The answer is
to be found first in the undoubted fact that for many years it
was not the custom to mark the graves with stones, and sec-
ond, in the depredations to which stones were subjected by neg-
lect and rough usage. In the early days of the Colony slate
stone was not found within accessible distances, and when they
were finally imported from England, their cost undoubtedly
precluded their general use. Many of those imported were
creased and opened to the weather, and finally were disin-
tegrated by frost and broken up. I, myself, by the permission
of the selectmen, and of course at the cost of the town, devised
a kind of hood made of galvanized iron with which I have
protected seventy or more from both the influence of frost and
the no less destructive invasions of relic hunting vandals. So
far as neglect of the hill is concerned, I can find no sugges-
tion in the records of any proposition to protect the hill until
l7$7> when it was voted to fence it. Nothing was done, how-
ever, until 1782, when it was voted to permit Rev. Chandler
Robbins to fence and pasture it with the right at any time to
remove the fence and possess it as his own. Then for the first
time the hill was fenced, and Mrs. Robbins, after the death of
her husband petitioned the town to buy the fence. In 1800 it
was voted to permit Rev. Dr. Kendall to pasture the hill and
build a fence on condition that no horses be permitted within
the inclosure. Before that time it is evident that horses were
permitted to pasture it, and the treatment to which the stones
were thus exposed, is easily imagined. In later times, decayed
and fallen stones have been piled up behind the hearse house,
where masons in want of covering stones have taken them at
their pleasure. Of late years, however, tlje hill has had better
treatment, and the stones which have fallen have been reset at
the expense of the town. It is unnecessary to say that the most
vigilant care on the part of the town should be used, for
aside from all sentimental reasons, and aside from the duty of
the town to realize that it holds the hill in trust for all our

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 325

country, the hill and its stones form a commercial asset of in-
calculable value. An attempt was made in 1819 to plant orna-
mental trees on the hill, but either nothing was done, or the
attempt to carry out the vote of the town proved a failure. In
1843 another more successful attempt was made, and a large
number of trees were planted, and the duty of keeping them
well watered was assigned to the scholars in the High school.
Many of these survived, and others have at various times been
added.

Among the conclusions to which I have been led by the
foregoing review, is this, that Elder Brewster, Governor Brad-
ford and John Howland, and the other Mayflower passengers
who died in Plymouth after 1637, were buried on Burial Hill.
With regard to the burial of the Elder, I am obliged to reverse
the opinion heretofore expressed by me, that he was buried in
Duxbury. There are on record two inventories of the pro-
perty of Brewster, one of his house and its contents in Dux-
bury, and the other of his house and its contents in Plymouth.
The contents of the former are so meagre and unimportant as
to make it certain that the Duxbury house was only an oc-
casional residence, while those of the latter, consisting of cloth-
ing and a full household equipment, prove that he died in
Plymouth, and that there was his permanent home. Besides
Brewster was the Elder of Plymouth church, and of course
lived among his people, and further, Bradford says in his his-
tory, that Mrs. Brewster died before 1627, before the Duxbury
settlement began, and of course was buried in Plymouth, near
whose grave the Elder would have sought for himself a final
resting place.

The inscriptions on the gravestones, though not quaint, are
interesting to others besides the antiquary, and a few of them
I shall include in this chapter without either alphabetical or
chronological order as follows :

"Priscilla Cotton, widow of Josiah Cotton, born September
30, i860, died October 4, 1859."

Mrs. Cotton lived and died in a house which was removed
when Brewster street was opened, and now stands on the
North side of that street. She told me that at the time of the
Boston tea party in 1773 she attended a boarding school a little
below the Old South Meeting house, and remembered some of

326 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

the incidents attending the destruction of the tea. A man ser-
vant brought home some of the tea, but some of the scholars
refused to drink it. After her husband's death in 1819, she
bought an annuity at the office of the Massachusetts Hospital
Life Insurance Company, which after forty years of payment
was terminated, much to the satisfaction of the company.

"In memory of Samuel Davis, A. M., who died July io,
1829."

"From life on earth our pensive friend retires;
His dust commingling with the Pilgrim sires;
In thoughtful walk, their every path he traced;
Their toils, their tombs, his faithful page embraced;
Peaceful and pure, and innocent as they,
With them to rise to everlasting day/'

The above inscription and the following one were written
by Judge John Davis.

"In memory of George Watson, Esq.,who died the 3d of

December, 1800."

"No folly wasted his paternal store,
No guilt, no sordid avarice made it more;
With honest fame, and sober plenty crowned,
He lived and spread his cheering influence round
Pure was his walk, and peaceful was his end,
We blessed his reverent length of days,
And hailed him in the public ways
With veneration and with praise,
Our father and our friend."

"F. W. Jackson, obiit, March 23, 1799, aged one year, 7
days."

"Heaven knows what man he might have been,
But we know he died a most rare boy."

"In memory of Mrs. Tabitha Plasket, who died June 10.
1807, aged 64 years."

"Adieu vain world, I have seen enough of thee,
And I am careless what thou say'st of me;
Thy smiles I wish not, nor thy frowns I fear,
I am now at rest, my head lies quiet here."

"Died, Captain Simeon Sampson, June 22, 1789, aged 53
years."

Capt. Sampson was an early hero of the revolution, who
commanded the Brig Independence, built in Kingston, and the
first vessel commissioned by the provincial Congress.

An obelisk over the supposed grave of Governor William
Bradford contains among other inscriptions a Hebrew sentence

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 327

which translated is "Jehovah {s the portion of mine inheri-
tance."

"Here lyeth buried the body of that precious servant of God,
Mr. Thomas Cushman, who after he had served his generation
according to the wiU of God, particularly the Church of Plym-
outh for many years in the office of ruling elder, fell asleep
in Jesus, December, ye 10, 1691, & in ye 84 year of his age."

Elder Cushman was brought to Plymouth in the Fortune,
fourteen years of age, by his father, Robert Cushman, and was
the second elder of the church.

"Here lyes ye body of Mr. Thomas Clark, aged 98 years, de-
parted this life March ye 24, 1697."

The mate of the Mayflower was John Clark, and not the
above Thomas. A part of the colony grant of land in Chilton-
ville to Thomas Clark was called by him Saltash. An outlying
suburb of old Plymouth is called Saltash, and the name of
Clark is common there.

"Here lyeth ye body of Edward Gray, aged about 52 years,
& departed this life ye last of June, 1681."

The stone bearing the above inscription is the oldest stone
on Burial Hill. Mr. Gray became a prominent business man
and owned lands in Rocky Nook, some of which is still owned
by his descendants.

"Here lyes the body of Mr. Thomas Faunce, ruling Elder of
the First Church of Christ in Plymouth, deceased February
27. An : Dom, 1745-6, in the 99th year of his age."
"The fathers where are they:
Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord."

"Ruth D., wife of Edward Southworth, died May 8, 1879,
aged 101 yrs., 10 mos., 13 days."

Mrs. Southworth's maiden name was Ozier, and she came
from Duxbury. She lived all through my boyhood on the slope
of Cole's Hill. I called on her on her hundredth birthday, and
she told me that she had not worn spectacles for twenty years.
Her son, Jacob William, is now living in Plymouth.

"Here lyes the body of Mr. Francis Le Barran, phytician,
who departed this life August ye 18th, 1704, in ye 36 year of
his age."

The above Francis LeBarran is the hero in the "Nameless
Nobleman." 1

3^8 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

"In memory of James Thacher, M. D.f a surgeon in the army
during the war of the Revolution ; afterwards for many years
a practising physician in the county of Plymouth ; the author
of several historical and scientific works ; esteemed of all men
for piety and benevolence, public spirit and private kindness.
Born February 14, 1754. Died May 26, 1844."

"Gen. James Warren died November 28, 1808, aged 82."

General Warren succeeded Dr. Joseph Warren as President
of Provincial Congress, and married Mercy, sister of the so-
called patriot, James Otis.

There are also on the hill stones at the heads of the graves
of James H. Bugbee, pastor of the Universalist Society who
died May 10, 1834, aged 31 years ; of James Kendall, who died
March 17, 1859, aged 89 years, after sixty years' service as
pastor of the First Church ; of Ephriam Little, pastor of the
First Church, who died Nov. 24, 1723, aged 47 years, two
months and three days; and of Chandler Robbins, pastor of
the First Church, who died June 30, 1799, at the age of sixty-
one.

It may not be out of place to present to my readers by way
of contrast with the foregoing somewhat sombre inscriptions a
few of a quaint character to be found in grave yards in other
towns. Omitting names of persons and places and dates, I
give merely the inscriptions as follows :

Accidentally shot, as a mark of affection by his brother.

Beneath this stone our baby lays,

He neither cries nor hollers.
He lived just one and twenty days,

And cost us forty dollars.

She lived with her husband fifty years, and died in the confident
hope of a better life.

Under this stone lie three children dear;
Two are buried in Taunton, and one lies here.

Here lies the body of Dr. Ransom, a man who never voted. Of
such is the kingdom of heaven.

Underneath this pile of stones
Lies all that's left of Sally Jones.
Her name was Lord; it was not Jones,
But Jones is used to rhyme with stones.

He did his damnedest Angels can do no more.

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 329

Wife, I'm waiting for you.
Husband, I'm here.

Stranger pause and shed a tear,

For Mary Jane lies buried here.

Mingled in a most surprising manner

With Susan, Maria, and portions of Hannah.

My father and mother were both insane.
I inherited the terrible stain.
My grandfather, grandmother, aunts and uncles,
Were lunatics all, and yet died of carbuncles.

Within this grave do lie,
Back to back my wife and I.
When the last trump the air shall fill—
If she gets up, I'll just lie still.

33° PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

CHAPTER XXXIII.

During my youth, public entertainments were rare in Plym-
outh, especially in the winter. During that season, with
unlighted streets and the houses lighted for the most
part with oil lamps, the town, more particularly in a storm of
rain or snow was gloomy, indeed. Families gathered around
their wood fires and here and there groups of men would sit
on the counters and boxes in the stores until the nine o'clock
bell called them home. When any of the housewives ventured
to have a party, candles with their candlesticks and snuffers
were brought out and scattered about the parlors on mantels
and tables. Occasionally instead of a formal evening party
a lap tea was the entertainment, the guests arriving at half
past six or seven. Those lap teas were glorious times for us
boys, for there was something exciting in the preparation. An
extra supply of cream was to be bought, the sugar loaf was to
be divested of its blue cartridge paper covering, and
chopped into squares, and sandwiches and whips and custards
were to be made, of which we were sure to get preliminary
tastes. And better than all we were permitted to carry around
waiters loaded with cups of tea and plates and cream and
sugar, and the various articles of food.

Music at these entertainments was uncommon. There were
as long ago as about 1828 or 1830 only four pianos in town,
and these were owned by Mrs. Pelham W. Warren, Mrs. Na-
than Russell, Jr., Miss Eliza Ann Bartlett and my sister Re-
becca. My sister's was given as part pay for a Chickering
piano ; Miss Bartlett's was sold to Joseph Holmes of Kingston
and is now owned by his granddaughter, Mrs. H. M. Jones of
that town ; Mrs. Russell's is still owned by her daughter, Mrs.
Wm. Hedge, and Mrs. Warren's went I know not where. The
Russell piano is, as I remember the others were, of ma-
hogany, ornamented with brass and with a scale of five and a
half octaves. It was made by Alfred Babcock of Philadelphia,
probably before 1825, for R. Mackey of Boston, who was not
a manufacturer, but probably an agent for the maker. I say
that it was probably made before 1825, because it is stated in

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 33 1

histories of piano making that Mr. Babcock invented in that
year the iron string board, which this one does not have.

At a party in a house where either of the above pianos was
owned, one of the guests, probably a visitor from Boston,
favored the guests, by request, with a song. I recall one oc-
casion when a lady was invited to sing who was unable to pro-
nounce the letter "s." She unhesitatingly consented, and taking
her seat at the piano sang the song beginning with the words,
"Oh ting tweet bird, oh ting." Though more than sixty years
have elapsed I am often reminded when I hear a lady sing at
the piano of the polite invitation of that lady to the tweet bird
to ting.

Aside from the parties the entertainments were chiefly lec-
tures by Rev. Chas. W. Upham on "Witchcraft ;" by Rev. Chas.
T Brooks on, "Education in Germany," by Mr. Emerson on
"Socrates;" or lectures by other prominent men; exhibitions
of ledgerdemain by Potter or Harrington, or of a mummy
which walked "in Thebes' streets three thousand years ago";
or if nothing better offered an evening book auction. Oc-
casionally a debating society would be formed of which Tim-
othy Berry was always the organizer and patron, a man always
ready to encourage the oratorical efforts of young men. I was
permitted as a boy to attend the meetings of the society, and
I remember the debaters well. As young as I was
I could not help being amused at the seriousness with which
the grandest subjects were attacked as if then and there their
settlement depended on the merits of the debate. There was
one gentleman who every evening, when the nine o'clock bell
rang, rose impressively and said, "Mister President, many
subjects not been teched on to-night, move we journ." The
club accordingly adjourned, and the impressive gentleman left
the hall, evidently feeling that he had been an active partici-
pant in the debate.

There was another society in my boyhood called the Plym-
outh Madan Society, but from whom it derived its name I
never knew. It was a musical society, and occasionally gave
concerts. The nearest approximation to the name I ever knew
until recently, was the Scripture name of Medan, the son of
Abraham. But that was evidently a misfit. I next found
among the proper names in the Century dictionary, that of

33^ PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

Martin Madan, an English Methodist divine who published in
1780 a book called Telyphthora, advocating polygamy. But
as the Plymouth Madan Society gave concerts in the Univer-
salist church, it is not probable that it was named in honor of
a polygamist. Having since met with the name of Madan in
the newspapers of a family in Marshfield, I wrote to Lot J.
Madan, living at Green Harbor, asking him if any of his fam-
ily in past generations, either his father or grandfather, had
been musical. Mistaking my word musical for married, he
replied that if his father and grandfather had not been mar-
ried he would not have been around in these days. In a sub-
sequent letter he said he played on the violin, and was as far
as he knew the only musician in the family. For whom then
the society was named is a question still unsolved.

Among other societies within my day was one to aid in ar-
resting horse thieves, and that was one of many formed in
various towns. The only surviving one within my knowledge
is in Dedham, which annually meets and elects its officers. I
have already alluded in another chapter to a temperance so-
ciety which was formed in 1832, by whose efforts more was
done to promote temperance than by all other agencies com-
bined from that time to this. The sale of intoxicating li-
quors was almost completely stopped, the family use of wines
was abandoned, and under the influence of Daniel Frost, whose
addresses were largely attended, more than a thousand names
were secured to pledges to abstain from the use of ardent
spirits.

An Anti-slavery society I have also referred to which was
formed in the Robinson church on the evening of the Fourth
of July, 1835, and occupied for some years rooms in the sec-
ond story of the northerly end of the building which up to
1883 stood on the site of the Sherman block on the west side
of Main street. The seed of anti-slavery fell in Plymouth on
sandy soil, but watered by heavenly dew, it soon took root and
broke through the conservative crust which under the influence
of the commercial and financial interests of the town, for a
time obstructed its growth.

There was a peace society formed in 183 1, but as we were
then at peace with the world, there does not appear to have
be*n at that time any special call for the organization. It

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 333

seems to have been a fashion of the times to form peace so-
cieties, but their influence was not sufficiently enduring to
check the movements which resulted in the Mexican war not
many years later. But it seems to be the way of our
people to advocate peace in a time of peace, and when war
threatens, to advocate war. The President of a Massachus-
etts Sunday-school Association preached in peaceful years as
a minister of the gospel peace on earth and good will among
men, but in 1898 I saw him marching with the first battery in
all the panoply of war to join the murderers of his fellow
men. Another prominent minister of the gospel who, when no
war clouds darkened the horizon, permitted himself without
protest to be called the apostle of peace, was as dumb as an
oyster when the opportunity came to utter trumpet-tongued his
protests against the war.

Bu it was not always so with the people of Plymouth. Ever
after the close of the revolution they were advocates of peace,
and when the war with Great Britain broke out in 1812 they
uttered in no uncertain language their determined protest. A
memorial to the President denouncing the war was passed
unanimously in town meeting, the closing words of which
were as follows: "Thus sir, with much brevity, but with a
frankness which the magnitude of the occasion demands, they
have expressed their honest sentiments upon the existing of-
fensive war against Great Britain, a war by which their dearest
interests as men and Christians are deeply affected, and in
which they deliberately declare, as they cannot conscientiously,
so they will not have any voluntary participation. They make
this declaration with that paramount regard to their civil and
religious obligations which becomes the disciples of the prince
of peace whose kingdom is not of this world, and before
whose impartial tribunal presidents and kings will be upon a
level with the meanest of their fellowmen, and will be respon-
sible for all the blood they shed in wanton and unnecessary
war."

My only comment on the above memorial is that milder
language was flippantly denounced as treasonable by some of
the advocates of the recent war with Spain.

The various societies which I have thus far mentioned were
temporary in their character, and had short careers. There

334 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

were, however, two others formed in the first quarter of the
last century, one charitable and the other historical, which have
continued to this day, and having been incorporated, will con-
tinue for an indefinite period. One of these, the Pilgrim So-
ciety, will be noticed in a later chapter in connection with the
celebrations of the anniversary of the landing of the Pilgrims.
The other, the Plymouth Fragment Society, having its origin
and inspiration in the heart of a benevolent lady a native of a
foreign land, with whom the ladies of Plymouth enthusiasti-
cally co-operated, has year after year for nearly ninety years, by
the kindly hands of each succeeding generation, dispensed
among the suffering poor a charity which, dropping like the
gentle rain from heaven, is twice blessed, for it blesseth him that
gives, and him that takes. It was founded by Madame Marie
de Verdier Turner on the 13th of February, 1818, for the
declared purpose of "relieving the wants of the destitute poor."
To meet legal requirements imposed by bequests to the So-
iety, it was incorporated March 14, 1877, with a capital not
estimated nor divided into shares.

The officers of the Society since its organization have been as
follows : Presidents, Mary Warren, Martha Russell, Joanna
Davis, Betsey F. Russell, Margaret Warren, Sarah M. Holmes,
Laura Russell, Martha Ann Morton, Caroline B. Warren,
Esther Bartlett Vice-presidents: Esther Parsons Hammatt,
Betsey Torrey, Elizabeth Freeman, Lucretia B. Watson, Re-
becca D. Parker, Mrs. Thomas, Sally Stephens, Mercy B.
Lovell, Ellen M. Hubbard, Helen Russell. Secretaries : Betsey
H. Hodge, Rebecca Bartlett, Elizabeth L. Loud, Abbv M. Hall,
Helen Russell, Jennie S. Hubbard. Treasurers: Francis L.
Jackson, Phebe Cotton, Mary Ann Stevenson, Eunice D. Rob-
bins, Caroline E. Gilbert, Lydia G. Locke, Elizabeth W.
Whitman. The amount expended in charity during the year
ending October 1, 1905, has been $883.93 for food, fuel and
clothing, and $360 in payments of $2 a month to eleven regu-
lar, and four special pensioners.

So little is known by the present generation of Madame
Turner, the founder of the Society, and of her romantic life
that I present to my readers a short sketch of her career for the
facts in which I am chiefly indebted to a paper read by Lois B.
Brewster as a graduating exercise in 1899, at the Plymouth

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 335

High school, the language of which I have in a measure adopt-
ed:

Mrs. Turner was a native of Sweden, born in Malmo in 1789.
Her father was a retired officer in the Hussars, an accomplish-
ed gentleman, and her mother was connected with noble fami-
lies from whom she inherited the prejudices of the aristocracy.
She received an education which beside the ordinary branches
taught in the schools, included music, embroidery and painting.
Her father died when she was fifteen years of age, leaving her
mother with only a little more than a government pension for
her support. After removing with her family to Copenhagen,
Madame de Verdier soon after died, never having recovered
from the shock caused by the death of her husband. Marie
became an inmate of the home of a rich merchant, who provid-
ed her with every luxury, and in whose house she often met
guests of the merchant from foreign lands. Among these
guests at dinner one day were Captain Robinson, an English-
man, and Captain Lothrop Turner of Plymouth, ship masters,
whose ships were consigned to their host. It is needless
to say that the handsome Captain Turner and the pretty
Swedish maid fell deeply in love with each other before his
ship was ready to leave, but as she could speak no English, and
Swedish was to him an unknown tongue, their language of love
was carried on by the tell tale eye and blushing cheek, except
when Robinson lent his services as an interpreter. Ma-
rie, against the advice of her friends, yielded to the influence
of her own head, and accepting his hand in marriage, the hus-
band and wife after a marriage solemnized in April, 1812, sail-
ed for her new home in New England. It was during the war
of 1812, and in entering Massachusetts Bay, Capt. Turner bare-
ly escaped capture by an English frigate patrolling the coast,
but finally reached Plymouth. The story of the romantic mar-
riage had reached Plymouth before them, and on the day of
their arrival the young friends of the captain were gathered
to give a cordial welcome to his Swedish bride. Long before
the arrival of the stage bearing them was due, numbers
of women and children anxious to see the bride gathered on
Cole's Hill, and from that vantage ground saw the blue-eyed,
golden haired little woman as she dismounted and entered
the house of Capt. Turner's father, which stood near the foot,

336 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

and on the South side of Leyden street. It was a trying
season for her among new friends whom she had never seen,
imperfect in the use of the English tongue, and amid scenes
to which she must become accustomed, as those of home.
Not long after her arrival a daughter Maria was born, who
died in infancy.

It now became her task to learn the language which she
must make her own, but she was an apt scholar, and bravely
and speedily fought her way through its intricate words and
phrases. As she became acquainted with Plymouth people
4 she was surprised that the pupils in school were not taught to
paint and embroider, and as two sisters of her husband were
teaching a private school she engaged in the instruction of their
pupils in those accomplishments. She also formed classes of
girls, and taught them music, besides painting and needlework.
In her visits among the sick she came to realize the needy con-
dition of many families suffering from the effects of the em-
bargo, which were added to the sad conditions of the revolu-
tion from which they had not yet recovered. Throughout the
early years of her life in Plymouth, she worked with zeal in
enlisting the aid and sympathy of those in comfortable circum-
stances in charitable work, and while engaged personally in
visits among the poor she conceived the idea of associated work
in aid of the sick and destitute.

Her husband died in Havana, April 28, 1824, and she was
left with little means of support, except that derived from
her own labors. Friends in Boston offered her aid which she
refused, believing it inconsistent with the character of a true
American to accept assistance while able to support herself.

She opened a school in the house of a friend on Fort Hill in
Boston, but after a short time felt a longing to return to her
native land, and sailed for Sweden in a vessel owned by Capt.
John Russell. She found, however, her country not as she
had left it, rich and moral, but a decaying monarchy, its people
intemperate, and without the political freedom enjoved in
America. She lived for a time in Stockholm as a friend of
Countess Ferson, and there received an advantageous offer of
marriage, which she declined, saying, "I have been the wife of
a free citizen, I will not lower myself by marrying a subject."
One day while riding with the Countess, she saw a ship flying

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. • 337

an American flag, and exclaiming — "See the stars — see the
stars," told the Countess that she must return in that ship to
her adopted country. And this she did, declaring that she
preferred a home of poverty in a free country to an abode of
luxury under a monarchy.

Arriving in Boston in delicate health, with symptoms of pul-
monary disease, after a season of suffering, she removed to
New York, hearing of a place there where she could teach. Her
disease, however, increasing, she went south, where she spent
two years with friends, engaged in finishing a translation of
"Waldermar, the Victorious/' from the Danish of Ingerman,
which she had begun while on her last voyage.

She had previously published with great success a work on
"Drawing and Shadowing Flowers," with lithographic plates,
executed by herself, and "The Young Ladies' Assistant in
Drawing and Painting," and several stories for magazines. She
returned to Boston in 1837, with the hope of continuing literary
work, but her disease increasing, she was obliged to abandon
the publication t)f her book, and told her friends that if it should
be published after her death, she hoped that a sketch of her life
might be prefixed, for she "believed that it would make the
women of America more sensible of the inestimable value of
their free institutions ; more thankful for their religious privi-
leges, and more American, when they read her-story. I would
do something for the country where I have found a Saviour for
my soul, where I have had a home, and where I shall have a
grave." She died at the Massachusetts General Hospital,
March 15, 1838, and her body was removed to Plymouth and
buried in Oak Grove cemetery. Her life and work should be
remembered by something more enduring than an occasional
allusion, and I suggest that a stone be erected over her grave
with something ljke the following inscription :

This stone is erected by the Plymouth
Fragment Society in memory of its
founder, Marie de Verdier Turner, a na-
tive of Sweden, who was born in Malmo,
in 1789, and died in Boston, March 15,

1838.

And Christ said: "Inasmuch as ye

have done it unto one of the least of

these, ye have done it unto mc."

338 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

CHAPTER XXXIV.

I have said in an early chapter that after having attended
Ma'am Weston's school on North street, Mrs. Maynard's in the
second story room in the building on the corner of Main street
and Town Square, and Mr. George P. Bradford's school in a
second story room on the opposite corner of Main street, I en-
tered the high school in 1832. The high school house was
situated on the north side of the Unitarian church between
School street and the town tombs, and was a one story building
about forty-five feet long and twenty or twenty-five feet wide,
with a door on the southerly end.

The situation of the house recalls these lines of Whittier :

"The town ne'er heeds the sceptic's hands,
While near her school the church tower stands;
Nor fears the bigot's blinding rule,
While near the church tower stands the school."

Standing on sloping ground the foundation of the house on
the street side was high enough to admit of a cellar above the
street level. In the northerly end of the school room there
was a platform, two steps above the main floor, with the teach-
er's area in the centre flanked on each side by three unpainted
pine desks with lids, and with long seats to correspond, facing
the area. An alley led from the door to the platform with a
row of desks and seats on each side, the row on the east side be-
ing broken by a space for a box stove for burning wood, the
only fuel at that time used.

The house was built in 1770, and until 1826 was called the
central or grammar school, but in that year it received the name
of high school. It had a belfry on its southerly end, and a bell
with the rope coming down into a cross entry between the out-
er door and the schoolroom. When the house was taken for an
engine house the bell was placed on the Russell street school
house, and when during some repairs, it was removed from that
building and abandoned, I captured it for Pilgrim Hall, where
it now is. The first bells, as large as this one, made in the
United States, were cast in Abington by Aaron Hobart in 1769,
under the direction of a deserter from the British Army, named

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 339

Gallimore, a bell founder by trade. There can be little doubt
that the bell in question was made by Mr. Hobart in 1769. It
is not altogether gratifying that, with other customs of the past,
the ringing of bells should be falling into disuetude. The
Court bell no longer calls the liar to come to Court, the school
bell is silent, the funeral bell is not heard, even the fire
bell is giving way to the electric alarm, and I fear that
the church bell will be the next to fall asleep under the sop-
orific influence of fashion. But I trust that the day is far
distant when the sweet voice of the Sunday bell shall become
mute. Years ago when Julian, the great French composer of
instrumental music was in the habit of bringing out his new
pieces for the year, he played them for the first time at the se-
ries of mask balls, beginning each year at Christmas. I had
been in Paris six months without hearing the church bell ring-
ing its summons to service, and I have never forgotten the
emotions stirred within me when I heard at the first ball in the
series, sixty years ago, the piece entitled "la dimanche au son-
neur" the Sunday bells. The first time I saw the "Angelus"
by Millet, the same emotions were revived, and the music of
"la dimanche au sonneur" is still ringing in my ears.

While talking of bells, I wonder how many of my readers
know how far church bells can be heard. I read a few years
ago an article in the Living Age on the rut of the sea, or as it
is better known, the roar of the ocean, which many persons
think is caused by the surf on the shore after a storm. I dis-
covered many years ago that this was not so, as I had often
heard it when there was no storm, and when there was scarcely
a ripple on the beach. The article referred to stated that the
rut was the sound of a distant storm, perhaps hundreds of
miles away, and illustrated the distance at which sounds can be
heard at sea by the following incident. A ship bound into
New York one Sunday forenoon was sailing close hauled on
the wind on the starboard tack about eighty miles dead to lee-
ward from Sandy Hook. The mate reported to the Captain
that he could hear the New York church bells. The captain
doubting it, went on deck and heard them distinctly. Putting
his ship into the wind, and thus shivering her light sails, he lost
the sound, but putting her off again the bells continued to be
heard. The sound of the bells reached the upper sails, and

340 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

was reflected to the deck. I was prepared to credit the
story, because I have been told by grand bank fishermen that
in old side wheel days they had heard the paddles of an ocean
steamer twelve miles away.

Returning from this digression, let me say that in 1832 I
presented myself at the office of Dr. Winslow Warren, on the
corner of Main and North streets, chairman of the school com-
mittee, to be examined for admission into the high school. The
requirements were at that time, an age of ten years, an ability
to read well and spell, to write a fair round hand, a knowledge
of Colburn's first lessons, and Robinson's arithmetic as far as
vulgar fractions, and ability to parse a simple sentence. I had
at that time not only gone beyond the requirements in my stud-
ies, but had made a considerable advance in Latin. When I
entered the school it was kept by Samuel Ripley Townsend.
When he flogged a boy he did it neither in sorrow nor in anger,
but rather for the quiet fun it gave him. He wore spectacles,
and had a way of walking leisurely up the alley as if his
thoughts were far away from the school, and if any boy after
he had passed made a face behind his back, or threw a spit ball
at another boy, he would see the reflection in his spectacles, and
then going quietly to his desk, and taking out his cowhide,
would walk back apparently in an absent mood, and when he
walked by the boy he would bring the hide down smartly on his
back, and keep on his walk with an ill concealed smile on his
face as if he had played a joke on the offender.

Mr. Townsend, son of Samuel and Abigail Townsend, waa
born in Waltham, April 10, 1810, and graduated at Harvard in
1829. After leaving Plymouth he engaged in business in Bos-
ton for a time, and afterwards taught the Bristol Academy
from 1846 to 1849, during which period he studied law with
Horatio Pratt, and was admitted to the Bristol bar in 1850. In
1853 he was chosen treasurer of Bristol County, serving three
years, and in 1858 was appointed Judge of the Police Court of
Taunton. After the dissolution of the court he practiced law
in Taunton, serving three terms as a member of the city coun-
cil, and in 1882 was appointed City Solicitor. He married
June 29, 1837, Mary Snow Percival, and died September 27,
1887.

In 1833 Mr. Townsend was succeeded by Isaac Nelson Stod-

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 34I

dard, bom in Upton, October 30, 1812, who graduated at Am-
herst in 1832. He taught the school about two years, and then
moved to New Bedford, where he taught until 1837, when he
returned to Plymouth, and again had charge of the school until
1841. In the latter year he was appointed collector of the
port, remaining in office until 1845, when he was made cashier
of the Plymouth Bank, continuing in office in that and its
successor, the Plymouth National Bank, until 1879, when he
was made president. He married in 1836, Martha Le Baron,
daughter of John B. Thomas,, and died July 23, 1891. He
fitted John Goddard Jackson and myself for college during the
first half of 1838, when we carried on our studies at home,
and went to Mr. Stoddard's house late each afternoon to recite.
While in New Bedford Mr. Stoddard became an intimate
friend of Judge Oliver Prescott, Judge of Probate of Bristol
county, and hence the name of our genial friend, Col. Stod-
dard. The ordinary punishment to which the boys were sub-
jected by Mr. Stoddard, was a squeeze of the ear between his
thumb and forefinger, but the punishment for high offences was
a flogging on the soft parts, while the victim lay across a chair.
Some of my readers will doubtless remember Bill Randall, and
the jolly way in which he did everything. One day knowing
that Mr. Stoddard intended to flog him, he went to school pre-
pared for the occasion. When he was called out and told to
lie down he exhibited a protuberance never equalled by any
bustle of the dressmaker's art, and as he took the blows which
might as well have been inflicted on a bale of wool, he would
wink to the other scholars as much as to say, "go ahead old fel-
low if you enjoy it, go ahead." Bill went to California, and
on a visit to Plymouth a few years ago he was the same old
Bill, and if he be living and sees these memories, he will have a
laugh over the flogging incident.

During Mr. Stoddard's absence in New Bedford the first
teacher was Leonard Bliss of Rehoboth, a scholarly man, who
published a history of Rehoboth, a valuable contribution to his-
torical literature. After leaving Plymouth he went to Louis-
ville, Ky., and edited the Louisville Journal. For some of-
fensive remarks in the columns of his paper, he was shot dead
in his office. He was a son of Leonard and Lydia (Talbot)
Bliss, and was born in Swanzey, December 12, 181 1.

34^ PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

Win. H. Lord succeeded Mr. Bliss, a native of Portsmouth,
born September 10, 1812, and a graduate at Dartmouth in 1832.
He graduated at Andover Academy in 1837, and was settled
for a time over the Unitarian Societies of Southboro, Mass.,
and Madison, Wisconsin. At one time he edited a news-
paper in Port Washington, and was Consul at St. Thomas
from 1850 to 1853. He married Persis, daughter of Rev. Dr.
James Kendall, and died in Washington in 1866. He was a
popular teacher, and introduced a new feature into school
government, which proved successful. At the opening day of
his term he told his scholars that they might have the afternoon
of that day to themselves in the school room for the purpose of
enacting a code of rules for the management of the school, and
reporting the same to him the next day, but he wished them to
distinctly understand that when enacted, the rules were to be
obeyed. It requires no deep knowledge of human nature to
know that such a confidence in the good faith of the school
would be conscientiously respected. I do not remember a
single case of flogging under his administration.

Before the return of Mr. Stoddard to Plymouth in 1837 the
school was kept a short time by Robert Bartlett of Plymouth
of the Harvard class of 1836, and by LeBaron Russell of the
Harvard class of 1832, but nothing occurred during their
terms, especially worthy of notice, except the pranks usual in
every school. One of these pranks was tried on each teacher
in turn. In the cool days of autumn or spring, the fire in the
box stove was not kept up continuously, so some morning when
there was no fire, a bundle of seaweed was rammed down the
chimney, and soon after the school opened the boys began one
after another to shiver and ask for a fire. Of course, when
the fire was kindled, the room would fill with smoke, and the
usual result, the dismissal of the school, followed. There
were no janitors in those days, and each Saturday two boys
would be detailed to discharge during the next week a jan-
itor's duties, including sweeping out, sawing wood, making*
fires and ringing the bell. I do not think such work ever did
me any harm, indeed, I am sure that it taught me as much
that was useful as is taught today in some branches of in-
struction included in the regular curriculum, for which special
salaried teachers are employed.

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 343

A school called the town school, was kept in my day by
Thomas Drew in a house built in 1827, which has been recent-
ly taken down. It stood also on School street, near the way
up Burial Hill, a little distance south of the high school house.
The boys attending that school were older and larger than the
high school boys, and when there was snow on the ground
there was scarcely a day without a pitched battle between the
two schools. During my time our leader was Abraham Jack-
son, always cool and fearless, and generally leading his fol-
lowers to victory, and driving the enemy into their school.
He entered Harvard a year before I did, and on the Delta he
was the same hero in the strife that he was on Burial Hill
at home. More than once I have seen him there with ball in
hand rushing through the crowd with an impetus which no ob-
stacle could check, and heard the cry, "go it Jackson, go it
Jackson," and then a cheer when he sent the ball home. I
can conceive of no danger from which Jackson would have re-
treated, and of no act of daring which he would not if neces-
sary have performed. He once saved a boy from drowning,
who had ventured on thin ice in the middle of Murdock's pond
and fallen through. While other boys were paralyzed with
fear he kept his presence of mind, and did just the right thing.
There was a pile of rails on the shore, and seizing two he drag-
ged them side by side near the broken ice, and then lying down
on them worked his way with his weight distributed over as
much surface as possible, to the boy, and taking him by the
collar, pulled him to the rails and to safety. He was always
a hero, and in war would have been a Cushing in Roanoke
river or a Hobson at Santiago.

A fuller history of Plymouth schools than I propose to give
in these memories, may be found in my Ancient Landmarks
of Plymouth, and I must content myself with saying that
after the school became the high school in 1826, the teachers,
omitting those already mentioned, were Addison Brown,
Harvard, 1826, George W. Hosmer, Harvard, 1826, who mar-
ried Hannah Poor, daughter of Rev. James Kendall, Horace
Hall Rolfe, born in Groton, N. H., July 20, 1800, graduated
at Dartmouth, 1824, married, 1828, Mary T., daughter of
Stephen Marcy, and died in Charleston, S. C, February 24,
1831, Josiah Moore, Harvard, 1826, who married in 1831,

344 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

Rebecca W., daughter of Wm. Sturtevant, Charles Clapp, Mr.
Jenks, Philip Coombs Knapp, Dartmouth, 1841, John Brooks
Beal, Thomas Andrew Watson, Harvard, 1845, Samuel Se-
wall Greeley, Harvard, 1844, Wm. H. Spear, J. W. Hunt,
Frank Crosby, Edward P. Bates, Admiral P. Stone, George
Lewis Baxter, Theodore P. Adams, Harvard, 1867, Joseph
Leavitt Sanborn, Harvard, 1867, Henry Dame, George Wash-
ington Minns, Harvard, 1836, Gilman C. Fisher, and Charles
Burton, who was succeeded by teachers with whose names
my readers are familiar.

There are two of the above of whom I am able to furnish
meagre sketches. Charles Burton, son of Thomas and Eliza-
beth (Deane) Burton, was born in Wolverhampton, England,
December 16, 1816, and about 1818 came to America with
his widowed mother and one brother and four sisters, and set-
tled in Pittsburgh, where in early life he learned the trade of
pattern maker. In Pittsburgh he became acquainted with
Lemuel Stephens, who was instructor there in Daniel Stone's
private school, and about 1839 sailed with him for Germany
in a vessel belonging to I. and E. Morton. After a year's
study in Gottingen and Heidelberg, he returned home, and
soon after came to Plymouth with messages from Mr. Steph-
ens, whose sister Sarah he afterwards married. He taught
first a private school on Watson's Hill in a building erected
for the purpose, and for many years afterwards was associated
with the public schools of Plymouth, either as principal of the
high school or as superintendent of schools. He died No-
vember 25, 1894.

George Lewis Baxter, son of William W. and Ann E.
(WelJl) Baxter, was born in Quincy, Oct. 21, 1842, and gradu-
ated at Harvard in 1863. In 1864 he was principal of the
Reading High School, and afterwards for three years princi-
pal of the high school in Plymouth. In 1867 he was appoint-
ed headmaster of the Somerville high school, in which
capacity he is still serving with about four hundred and thirty
scholars under his charge. In 1872 he married Ida F. Paul,
and has a son, Gregory Paul Baxter, who graduated at Har-
vard in 1896.

I entered college at sixteen, the usual age at that time, while
now it is eighteen. There are persons who believe that every-

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 345

thing is lovely in our day, and that our fathers were unedu-
cated, ignorant men. They claim that our public schools are
more efficient in instruction, and their pupils further advanced
than formerly. This I doubt. I began to study Latin at nine,
and I have no reasons to think that I was an exception. They
explain the advanced age of freshmen, by claiming that the
requirements for admission to college are greater, and this
claim I also doubt. They further claim that a higher scholar-
ship is reached by the graduate of the present time. But to
substantiate this claim, they should show first that the old in-
structors were inferior to the present, and second that the vari-
ous activities of life are now represented by abler men than
ever before. But are Professor Felton in Greek, Profes-
sor Beck in Latin, Professor Channing in Rhetoric and
Elocution, Professor Pierce in Mathematics, and Profes-
sor Longfellow in French, outclassed by recent professors?
Then if we turn to the various professions we find among the
graduates of the earlier half of the last century in the minis-
try, Wm. Ellery Channing, James Walker, Frederick Hedge,
George Putnam, Wm. P. Lunt, Henry W. Bellows, and Ed-
ward Everett Hale; in law, Samuel Dexter, Lemuel Shaw,
Sidney Barilett, Benjamin Robbins Curtis and William Whit-
ing; in literature, Wm. H. Prescott, George Bancroft, Jared
Sparks, Francis Parkman, J. Lothrop Motley, James Russell
Lowell, Oliver Wendell Holmes; in medicine, John Collins
Warren, Henry Bigelow and George H. Gay, and in states-
manship, John Quincy Adams, Josiah Quincy, Harrison Gray
Otis, Edward Everett, Charles Sumner and George F. Hoar;
in science, Benjamin Pierce, Asa Gray and B. A. Gould. Is
a comparison with recent graduates unfavorable to these men ?
I was told not many years ago by a distinguished scholar, a
graduate of Harvard, and one of its professors, that in his
opinion Harvard did not graduate as good scholars as it did
fifty years before. If this be true, I think there is a reason
for it. Many persons mistake bigness for greatness, but I
believe that sixteen hundred undergraduates cannot be mould-
ed as well as four hundred. There is not that personal inter-
est felt in the student by the instructors, which was once
felt. I am inclined to doubt whether in the faculty today
there is more than one member able to recognize and call by

346 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

name fifty students. In my day it was different, and to apply
the reductio ad absurdum, there was Charles Stearns Wheeler,
Greek tutor, the Pinkerton of the faculty, who boasted that
if day or night he could see the heel of a student going round
a corner he could give his name — ex pede herculetn. Only
a few incidents in my college career are worthy of mentioning.
I think I am one of very few students whose pardon has ever
been asked by a professor. One day while solving a prob-
lem in geometry before Professor Pierce, or Benny, as we called
him, and performing my work with ease and rapidity, he stop-
ped me suddenly and sent me to my seat, telling me to begin
at the next recitation at the beginning of the text book,
which we were then half through. At the next recitation
he called me to the blackboard and asked me how far I
was prepared. I told him, "Up with the class," and then
be began to screw me, giving me three problems in differ-
ent places in the book, which I solved with ease. He
then said, "Take your seat, and remain after the class leaves
the room." When we were alone he said, "Davis, I thought
you were copying at the last recitation, but I am satisfied that
you were not, and I beg your pardon." The students some-
times marked difficult points in the problems on their cuffs, and
sometimes on a slip of paper, and the professor seeing me do-
ing my work so glibly, thought I had an auxiliary somewhere
about my person. He never alluded to the matter again, but
he manifested his regret by inviting me very frequently to
spend a part of a night with him, or his assistant in the ob-
servatory to aid in recording magnetic or astronomical obser-
vations.

No professor was more interesting to me than Edward Tir-
rell Channing, at the head of the department of rhetoric and
elocution. I think he made a deeper and broader mark on
the undergraduate mind than has been felt since his day. His
custom was to take up the themes, which he had examined,
and criticise them before the class. On one occasion, taking
up mine he said, "Davis, I have only one thing to say to you,
when you have written anything which you think particu-
larly fine, strike it out." A member of my class published a
book of poems during his college course entitled, "Pebbles
from Castalia," which we boys called, "Brickbats from Ken-

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 347

nebunk." On one occasion he wrote a theme in verse, and
Channing taking it up said, "Mr. Blank, I see that in your
theme every line begins with a capital, what is the reason?"
"It is poetry, sir." "Ah, poetry, is it, I did not think of that,
but hereafter, leave out some of your capitals."

In my day there were five degrees of punishment: expul-
sion, suspension, public admonition before the faculty, private
admonition by the president, and mild censure by the pro-
fessor, who had a room in college. There was a race course
a little more than a mile from the college which the boys often
attended to see trotting races under the saddle. One rider
was easy and graceful in riding jockey hitch. At one time
I was called before Professor Loverin^ who held the position
above referred to, and told by him that I was reported for
attending the race on the Wednesday before. I said, "Yes, I
was there, and saw you there." "Well, how do you like
jockey hitch," he asked, and after we had exchanged our
views on that style of riding, he bade me good morning. This
mild censure reminds me of a story told of Professor Felton,
one of whose brothers, some twenty years younger than him-
self, was an undergraduate, and was reported for swearing
in the college yard. The faculty requested the professor to
speak to his brother, so sending a messenger for him to come
to his recitation room he told him that he had been reported
as above mentioned. "Yes," his brother said, "I plead guilty,
but I do not often indulge in profanity." "Damnation, John,
what do you mean by using the word profanity. There is
no such word ; prof aneness, John, profaneness, not profanity —
you may go."

Josiah Quincy, born in Boston, Feb. 4, 1772, a Harvard
graduate of 1790, was president during my term. He had
occupied the positions of member of congress, state senator,
mayor of Boston, and Judge of the Boston Municipal Court,
when he was chosen president in 1829, serving until 1845. He
was sixty-six years of age, when I entered college, but appear-
ed much older. He bore the reputation of being absent
minded, but though many of the stories illustrating this men-
tal condition, are probably untrue, an instance of it once oc-
curred under my own eye and ear. He and Hon. Tyler
Bigelow, the father of Chief Justice Geo. Tyler Bigelow, were

348 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

intimate friends, and their families were also intimate. Meet-
ing one day in the waiting room of the Old Colony station
some years after the death of Mr. Bigelow's wife, Mr. Quincy
asked him how Mrs. Bigelow was. Putting his hand to his
ear, as he was very deaf, Mr. Bigelow said, "What did you
say?" Mr. Quincy raising his voice said, "How is Mrs.
Bigelow." Mr. Bigelow said, "Speak louder," and Mr.
Quincy called out in his loudest voice, attracting the attention
of every one in the room, "Ifaw is Mrs. Bigelow." "Dead,
dead," said Mr. Bigelow, much to the amusement of the crowd.
Mr. Quincy was a noble man. He loved Boston, and was
devoted to its interests. The city owned what was called city
wharf, opposite the Quincy Market, and when he was about
eighty years of age the city government voted to sell it by
auction. Mr. Quincy protested publicly against the sale of
property which in his judgment would appreciate largely in
value in the near future. No attention was paid to his pro-
test, and the sale went on. He bought it, and then offered
it to the city at the price he paid, but his offer was refused.
I have heard his profits on the purchase put as high as a half
a million of dollars. He died in Quincy, July I, 1864, at
the age of ninety-two.

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 349

CHAPTER XXXV.

As has been already stated, in the early days of the Plym-
outh Colony, town meetings were held in either the (jovernor's
house, or the meeting house. The last meeting in the meet-
ing house, so far as the record shows, was held July 6, 1685.
In that year Plymouth County was incorporated with Plym-
outh, the shire, and though I can find no record of the event,
it is probable that the County Court house, which stood on the
site of the present town house, was built in that year, and
that from that time it was the meeting place of the town.
There are scattering records of town meetings held there be-
fore it was taken down in 1749, in which year the present
town house was built by the county as a Court House. In
anticipation of the erection of the present house it was voted by
the town at a meeting held in the Court House, Oct. 10, 1748,
"to give towards building a new house three hundred pounds
old tenor, provided that the town shall have free use and im-
provement of the said building, as long as it stands, to trans-
act any of the public affairs of the town in." On the 6th of
March, 1749, it was voted "that the town will add to their
former vote for building a Court House, the sum of seven
hundred pounds old tenor . provided that the Court of Gen-
eral sessions for this county at its next sessions shall order
that the said Court House shall immediately be built, and that
the town have the privilege of transacting their public affairs
in the same so long as the said house shall stand."

At the next session of the court it was voted to accept the
additional grant and a copy of the vote was attested by Ed-
ward Winslow, clerk.

In order that my readers may understand the meaning of
old tenor money, let me say, that there were three issues of
paper money by the Massachusetts province prior to 1750.
The issues prior to 1737 were called old tenor, the issue made
in that year was called middle tenor, and the issue of 1741,
new tenor. When the province bills were redeemed in 1750,
the old tenor was redeemed at the rate of one piece of a dol-
lar for forty-five shillings of old tenor, which would make the

35° PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

amount paid to the county a fraction over $444 44 This
sum it must be remembered was in addition to the snare of the
cost of the building to be assessed on the town in its county
tax.

In 1749, then, the present town house, was erected. A
somewhat doubtful tradition ascribes its design to Peter Oliver,
who in 1747 was appointed Judge of the Inferior Court of
Plymouth County; and a still more doubtful tradition states
that originally its entrance was on the easterly end and was
changed about 1786 to the north side, where it is now. Af-
ter a careful examination of the latter tradition, I have reached
the conclusion that it is erroneous. A market was established
as early as 1722, and for more than a hundred years clerks
of the market were annually chosen by the town. Having
examined every land title from Wellingsley to Cold Spring,
and found no mention of a market anywhere except under
the town house, I am satisfied that the basement of both the
old and new building contained a market from 1722 to the
time of its comparatively recent abandonment in 1858. The
tradition therefore concerning the change of the entrance to
admit of the establishment of a market probably refers, not
to the present building, but to the old one in which a change
of plan may have been made to admit of the establishment
of a market in 1722. There is no reason to doubt the state-
ment that at one time there was a one story wooden projec-
tion as far out as the sidewalk to furnish larger accommoda-
tions for the market, but it was removed before my day, and
the market was confined to the basement alone. The market
in my day was equipped with stalls, which were leased by the
clerk of the market to various persons, among whom I remem-
ber Elisha and Charles Nelson, Amasa Holmes, Joseph White,
Brackley Cushing and Maltiah Howard. The interior ar-
rangement of the town house was much the same as now, ex-
cept that a safe has in later times been built, and the old Court
room occupied the whole of the second story. The Court
room was provided with a raised desk for the judge, a desk
below for the clerk, a sheriff's box on one side, a court crier's
box on the other, the jury seats facing the judge, and separat-
ing the lawyer's area from the space for the public in the rear.
Such was the arrangement of the building until 1820, when a

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 35 1

new Court House having been built in Court Square, the
building was sold to the town for the sum of two thousand
dollars. It remained practically unchanged until 1829, when
the Torrent No. 4, a suction hose engine was bought, and the
room at the westerly end was fitted for its accommodation.
For the supply of water to this engine, and the Niagara No. 1,
which was at the same time changed to a suction engine, res-
ervoirs were built in Shirley and Town Squares to be filled
by the aqueduct. The specifications for these reservoirs re-
quired them to be sixteen feet in diameter in the clear, and
fourteen feet deep from the spring of the arch. To complete
the story of the reservoirs, that on Training Green was built
in 1834, that at the crossing of High and Spring streets, and
that opposite Pilgrim Hall in 1853, and one at the foot of Rus-
sell street at an earlier period.

All through my boyhood the Town House remained as I
have described it until 1839, when all the equipments of the
old Court room except the judged desk were removed and
substantial seats were built on a sloping floor, which necessi-
tated three more steps on the stairs. In 1858, while I was
chairman of the selectmen, the engine Torrent was removed
to the basement, and the room and ante-room, recently occupied
by the selectmen, were fitted for use by the board. As first
arranged, a large, round table with five drawers was con-
structed around an iron column in the room, which was re-
moved some years later. The hall above was used for meet-
ings of the town until 1872, since which time they have been
held in Davis Hall and Odd Fellows' Hall, and the Armory.
At a later date it was occupied by the Public Library for a
.short time, and then divided into rooms, one of which was
occupied until recently by the school committee, and the other
is now occupied by the Assessors. It may be interesting to
some of my readers to learn that Catholic mass was celebrated
in Town Hall, April 4, 1849.

While this book is in press, the selectmen have remodelled
the interior and built a new and larger safe.

My first connection with town affairs began in 1854, when
I was chosen a member of the school committee. I had the
previous year become a permanent resident of Plymouth, after
some years residence in Boston, and until 1892, a period of

352 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

thirty-eight years, I do not recall a year in which I did not
hold a town office. In 1855 I was chosen a selectman with
Jacob H. Loud, chairman, and Ezekial C. Turner, Israel Clark
and Ezra Leach, my other associates. In 1856 I was chair-
man, associated with Joseph Allen, Joseph P. Brown, Brad-
ford Barnes and David Clark, and 1857-8-9, the board re-
mained unchanged. In i860 1 remained chairman with Joseph
P. Brown, Ezekial C. Turner, David Clark and Thomas B.
Sears my associates, and in 1861 my associates were Ly-
sander Dunham, Hosea Bartlett, Thomas B. Sears and
Ezekial C. Turner, the same board continuing in office
until the spring of 1866, when I declined further service.
I was again chosen in 1870* and 1881, but declined serv-
ing, and was finally chosen in 1888, '89, '90, serving the last
year as chairman. At regular, adjourned and special meetings,
and November elections, I served as moderator seventy-nine
times.

During my first service as moderator, the men who took the
most active part in discussions were Moses Bates, Wm. H.
Spear, Ichabod Morton, Charles G. Davis, Wm. H. Whitman,
Captain John Russell, Jonathan Thrasher, Nathaniel Ellis,
Charles H. Howland, Barnabas H. Holmes, Samuel H. Doten
and Chas. O. Churchill. Occasionally the debates were spirit-
ed and personal. Some of the above were remarkable men.
Jonathan Thrasher born and brought up, and a life-long resi-
dent, at Long Pond, denied favorable opportunities of instruc-
tion, was a man of large brain, who under the sunlight of a
higher education, would have been a formidable competitor in
the arena of professional life. When he spoke he at once
arrested attention by his calm and judicial manner, and well
expressed arguments, which were the result of careful thought
Nathaniel Ellis of Ellisville, was also a man of mark, vig-
orous in mind and body, ready in speech, and at every oppor-
tunity keen in ridicule and satire. I remember the roars of
laughter, elicited by his speech in opposition to an addition-
al appropriation asked for by a school committee, in whom
he had no confidence. He described one of their junkets,
hiring a two horse carriage, stowing under the seats lemons
and sugar and sandwiches and cold chicken and pickles, and
the purpose of their service in behalf of the town, the convey-

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 353

ance of an inkstand to the Ellisville school of four scholars. He
said it was the same committee which went on a similar junket
to examine the Red Brook School, and learned from the teach-
er after their erudite examination was finished that Red Brook
school was in Sandwich, and not in Plymouth. It is needless
to say that the additional appropriation was defeated. Ichabod
Morton on every question relating to schools was conspicuous
in debate. He was an ardent advocate for larger appropriations
for public schools, and though often subjected to ridicule by
his opponents, he never lost his temper and waited patiently
for time to prove in the end that one with a righteous cause
was a majority. At the time to which I refer in 1855 and i860,
the appropriations for schools were $8,600, and $10,000, re-
spectively, with a population of six thousand, while the ap-
propriation for the present year is forty-nine thousand dollars,
to which the interest on the school debt must be added, with
little less than double the population.

In performing the duties of moderator many questions arise
for which neither law nor parliamentary usage furnishes any
solution. He possesses arbitrary power which he must be care-
ful in exercising. Some of the questions which came up during
my service in that office were sufficiently interesting to justify
a reference to them. On one occasion an article in the warrant
involved an appropriation to which the voters in the south part
of the town were opposed, and after a full discussion the appro-
priation was defeated, and the town passed on to the consider-
ation of other articles in the warrant. In the latter part of
the afternoon, after the southern voters had left for home, a
motion was made to reconsider the vote of rejection, and with
no rule of law to guide me, but one of fair play and square
dealing, I ruled the motion out of order. I stated that the
person moving reconsideration failed to make it before other
business was done, and not having made it or given notice that
he intended to make it, before adjournment, the
opponents of the measure had a right to consider the question
settled for the day. Some complained of the ruling, but its
fairness was afterwards conceded, and so far as I know has
been adopted as a guide for other moderators.

On another occasion, while several articles in the warrant
remained unconsidered, a motion was made to adjourn, which

354 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

I ruled out of order. It was claimed that a motion to adjourn
was always in order, and was undebatable. That is un-
doubtedly true in any body or convention, which has regular
sessions, for in that case an adjournment means merely an ad-
journment to the next session, and the business arrested by
the adjournment can be resumed when the next session comes
together. But in a town meeting, unless it has been voted
that when the meeting adjourns, it shall adjourn to meet at
a certain time, a motion to adjourn cannot be entertained.
There were only two courses which the mover might have
pursued. He might have moved as above that when the meet-
ing adjourns it adjourn to a certain time, and then if the town
so votes a simple motion to adjourn would have been in order ;
or he might have moved that the consideration of the remain-
ing articles in the warrant be indefinitely postponed, and if
the town so vote, he could have moved to dissolve the meet-
ing. A motion to adjourn unless there is a fixed time to ad-
journ to is simply an absurdity.

Under the old system of voting for town officers each set
of officers was chosen on a separate ballot, and the count-
ing of each set of ballots before balloting for the next officers
involved great labor and delay. In order to expedite matters,
a motion was made at the annual meeting in 1882 to instruct
the moderator to appoint tellers, and I ruled the motion out
of order, as being in controvention of the law. Many towns
had been in the habit of employing tellers and their example
was quoted as sufficient precedents for my guidance. I stated
in general terms that the law conferred on the moderator ex-
traordinary powers, and imposed upon him responsible duties
which he could no more delegate to another than a constable
or an assessor could delegate to a substitute his powers and
duties. At the adjourned meeting I gave my reasons in writ-
ing to the town, and a reporter for tftsJBoston Herald being
present, had it printed in full in the Suixjay edition of that
paper. The legislature was still in session, ^d the judiciary
committee acknowledging the correctness of myXuhng at once
secured the passage of an act authorizing the appointment of
tellers in town meetings. \

The question has often been asked whether a moderator
can participate in debate. I am clearly of the opinion that

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 355

except for the purpose of explaining rulings and answering
questions within certain limitations, he cannot with propriety
engage in the discussion of any measure before the town. It
is extremely doubtful whether if he takes a marked interest in
a debate he can secure the confidence of the town in the entire
impartiality of his rulings and acts. For the same reason I
do not believe in the propriety of his leaving the chair to
speak from the floor. If, however, he should do so, I am
clearly of the opinion that he vacates his chair, and that the
only business before the town is to choose a moderator pro
tern. His powers and duties cease the moment he leaves the
chair, and they cannot, be assumed by another upon whom
they are not conferred by the town by ballot, and the use of the
checklist.

How far a moderator shall go in ruling on the illegality
of a proposition, contained in the warrant, it is difficult to lay
down any rule. There are many moderators unfamiliar with
the laws who would necessarily permit the consideration of the
article, trusting to the meeting to decide on the arguments in
which illegality is alleged whether the proposition shall be re-
jected. If in such a case an illegal vote is favored a remedy
may be found on an application to the court for an injunction.

On the whole the ruling must be left to the judgment of
the moderator, who would not hesitate to rule, for instance,
out of order an article to see if the town will build a steam-
boat to run between Plymouth and Boston.

I cannot close this chapter without suggesting that, while
the most stringent laws are in force to prevent illegal voting
in the elections of officers, a law should be enacted either ex-
cluding non voters from the floor at town meetings, or pre-
scribing such a method of voting on appropriations as shall
preclude the nossibility of illegal voting. If other methods
are impracticable it might at least be provided that in voting
on appropriations exceeding $5,000, voters shall pass between
two tellers appointed by the moderator and standing in front
of the platform, who shall count the votes and report to the
moderator.

356 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

CHAPTER XXXVI.

Accounts of the celebrations which have been held in Plym-
outh within my memory, or described to me by those who wit-
nessed them, are worthy of record. I shall first, however, give
a list of Pilgrim celebrations conducted by the Old Colony
Club, the town, the Pilgrim Society, the first and third par-
ishes, the Robinson Society and the Fire Department, with the
xames of orators.

770, Old Colony Club, Edward Winslow, Jr., of Plymouth.

772, Old Colony Club, Rev. Chandler Robbins of Plymouth.

773, Old Colony Club, Rev. Charles Turner of Duxbury.

774, Town, Rev. Gad Hitchcock of Pembroke.

775, Town, Rev. Samuel Baldwin of Hanover.

776, Town, Rev. Sylvanus Conant of Middleboro.

777, Town, Rev. Samuel West of Dartmouth.
778f Town, Rev. Timothy Hilliard of Barnstable.

779, Town, Rev. William Shaw of Marshfield.

780, Town, Rev. Jonathan Moore of Rochester.
798, Town, Dr. Zaccheus Bartlett of Plymouth.

800, Town, Hon. John Davis of Boston.

801, Town, Rev. John Allyn of Duxbury.

802, Town, Hon. John Quincy Adams of Quincy.

803, Town, Rev. John T. Kirkland of Cambridge.

804, First Parish, Rev. James Kendall of Plymouth.
804, Town, Hon. Alden Bradford of Boston.

806, Town, Rev. Abiel Holmes of Cambridge.

807, Town, Rev. James Freeman of Boston.

808, Town, Rev. Thaddeus M. Harris of Dorchester.

809, Town, Rev. Abiel Abbot of Beverly.
811, Town, Rev. John Eliot of Boston.

815, Town, Rev. James Flint of Bridgewater.

816, First Parish, Rev. Ezra Shaw Goodwin of Sandwich.

817, Town, Rev. Horace Holley of Boston.
8i8» Town, Hon. Wendell Davis of Sandwich.

819, Town, Hon. Francis C. Gray of Boston.

820, Pilgrim Society, Hon. Daniel Webster of Boston.
822, Pilgrim Society, Rev. Eliphalet Porter of Roxbury.
824, Pilgrim Society, Hon. Edward Everett of Cambridge.

826, Third Parish, Rev. Richard S. Storrs of Braintree.

827, Third Parish, Rev. Lyman Beecher of Boston.

828, Third Parish, Rev. Samuel Green of Boston.

829, Third Parish, Rev. Daniel Huntington of Bridgewater.
829, Pilgrim Society, Hon. Wm. Sullivan of Boston.

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 357

1830, Third Parish, Rev. Benjamin Wisner of Boston.

1831, Third Parish, Rev. John Codman of Dorchester.

1831, First Parish, Rev. John Brazier of Salem.

1832, Third Parish, Rev. Jonathan Bigelow of Rochester.

1832, First Parish, Rev. Converse Francis of Watertown.

1833, First Parish, Rev. Samuel Barrett of Boston.

1834, Pilgrim Society, Rev. George W. Blagden of Boston.

1835, Pilgrim Society, Hon. Peleg Sprague of Boston.

1837, Pilgrim Society, Rev. Robert B. Hall of Plymouth.

1838, Pilgrim Society, Rev. Thomas Robbins of Mattapoisett.

1839, Third Parish, Rev. Robert B. Hall of Plymouth.

1841, Pilgrim Society, Hon. Joseph R. Chandler of Philadelphia.

1845, Pilgrim Society, dinner with speeches.

1846, Third Parish, Rev. Mark Hopkins of Williamstown.

1847, First Parish, Rev. Thomas L. Stone of Salem.

1848, Robinson Society, Rev. Samuel M. Worcester of Salem.
1853, Pilgrim Society, dinner and speeches.

1855, Pilgrim Society, Hon. Wm. H. Seward of Auburn, N. Y.
1859, Pilgrim Society dinner and speeches.
1870, Pilgrim Society, Hon. Robert C. Winthrop of Boston.
1880, Pilgrim Society, dinner and speeches.

1885, Pilgrim Society, dinner and speeches.

1886, Fire Department, dinner and speeches.

1889, Pilgrim Society, Hon. W. P. C. Breckinridge of Lexington, Ky.,
and a poem by John Boyle O'Reilly of Boston.

1895, Pilgrim Society, Hon. George F. Hoar of Worcester, and a poem
by Richard Henry Stoddard of New York.

On the 24th of January, 1820, the Pilgrim Society was in-
corporated and a committee of arrangements consisting of
Nathan Hayward, Wm. Davis, Jr., and Nathaniel Spooner was
chosen for the celebration of the next anniversary of the Land-
ing of the Pilgrims. It was determined to make the first dem-
onstration of the Society a memorable one. It is creditable to
the foresight of the society that they selected Mr. Webster for
orator. He was only thirty-eight years of age, and had not so
far as was generally known, reached the maturity of his pow-
ers. Before coming from Portsmouth to Boston in 1816, he
had served two terms in the lower house of Congress, and was
then practicing successfully at the Suffolk bar. He had, how-
ever, leaped into fame by his argument in the United States Su-
preme Court in 1818 in the Dartmouth College case. In 1769
a corporation called the "Trustees of Dartmouth College" was
chartered to have perpetual existence, and power to hold and
dispose of the lands for the use of the college, and the right to

358 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

fill vacancies in their own body. In 1816 the New Hampshire
legislature changed the corporate name to "The trustees of
Dartmouth University," and made the twelve trustees, together
with nine others to be appointed by the Governor and council,
a new corporation with the property of the old corporation,
with power to establish new colleges and an institution under
the control of twenty-five overseers. After a transfer of the
property had been made the old trustees brought an action of
trover to recover it on the ground of the unconstitutionali-
ty of the act. The act of the legislature was declared constitu-
tional by the Superior Court of New Hampshire, and by a writ
of error the case was carried to the United States Supreme
Court in 1818, where, in 1819, the decision of the New Hamp-
shire Court was reversed, and the act of the legislature de-
clared unconstitutional. Mr. Webster's argument had never
before been equalled, and has never since been surpassed.

At the time of the celebration, whoever, within an easy dis-
tance from Boston, could secure accommodations in Plymouth
availed himself of the opportunity. I have letters addressed
to my grandfather, written in August, asking him to engage
lodgings of some sort. There were three hotels in Plymouth,
all of them crowded with guests, and every spare bed in town
was secured. On the day of the celebration, by stage, by pri-
vate carriage, and public hack, visitors came on a two days'
trip in the dead of winter, fortunate if able to obtain a whole
or a part of a bed, while the drivers slept in their carriages. But
fortunately the day of the celebration was as mild as Indian
summer. I was told many years ago by a man who remem-
bered it, that he sat through a part of the day by an open win-
dow in his shirt sleeves. There has been preserved by the
Pilgrim Society a parchment containing the autographs of
all who attended the dinner, so that the array of distinguished
men who listened to Mr. Webster is not left to the imagina-
tion. Among the visitors were, Rev. John T. Kirkland, Presi-
dent of Harvard, Professors Edward Everett, Geo. Ticknor
and Levi Hedge, Rev. Abiel Abbot, Rev. Abiel Holmes, Rev.
John G. Palfrey, Rev. John Pierce, Rev. Converse Francis,
Rev. James Flint, Rev. Alexander Young, Rev. Charles Low-
ell, Rev. Francis Parkman, Rev. Wm. P. Lunt, Judge John
Davis, Isaac P. Davis, Thomas H. Perkins, Francis C. Gray,

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. 359

Levi Lincoln, Stephen Salisbury, Timothy Bigelow, Laban W.
Wheaton, Martin Brimmer, Benjamin Rotch, Amos Lawrence,
Thomas Bulfinch, Theron Metcalf, Nahum Mitchell, Wm. S.
Otis, George A. Trumbull, Augustus Peabody, Henderson
Inches, Francis Baylies, Willard Phillips, Henry Grinnell,
Samuel A. Eliot, Isaiah Thomas, Dudley A. Tyng, Isaac Mc-
Clellan, Amos Binney and others of no less distinction. No
such an assembly had ever before gathered in New England
as that which filled the church of the First Parish on that
memorable day. The scene was worthy of the best efforts
of the painter's art. The galleries reserved for the ladies,
seemed with the mingling of colors in dress and hats and fans
like banks of summer flowers mellowing the sombre garb
worn by the society and their guests on the floor below. Mr.
Webster wearing small clothes and buckles and shoes, and
over all a silk gown, stood on a raised platform in front of the
high oak pulpit and began his oration with words to which
his audience was in the spirit to heartily respond, "Let us re-
joice that we behold this day."

Perhaps that part of the oration which gave to it its chief dis-
tinction, was that denunciatory of the slave trade. A law was
passed by Congress in 1808 abolishing the trade, but it had
slumbered on the statute books until Mr. Webster twelve years
later, breathed into it the breath of life. In a town, which was
in early days within the Plymouth colony, the trade was still
carried on, and by this fact the scathing words of the oration
were inspired. "I hear the sound of the hammer. I see the
smoke of the furnace where manacles and fetters are still
forged for human limbs. I see the visages of those who by
stealth and at midnight labor in this work of hell, foul and
dark as may become the artificers of such instruments of
misery and torture. Let that spot be purified, or let it cease
to be of New England."

There was another passage, never more needed than to-
day to be impressed on the public mind, relating to military
achievements. "Great actions and striking occurrences having
excited a temporary admiration often pass away and are for-
gotten. * * Such is frequently the fortune of the most
brilliant military achievements. Of the ten thousand battles
which have been fought ; of all the fields fertilized with earn-

360 PLYMOUTH MEMORIES

age ; of the banners which have been bathed in blood ; of the
warriors who have hoped that they had risen from the field
of conquest to a glory as bright and as durable as the stars,
how few that continue to interest mankind. The victory of
yesterday is reversed by the defeat of today ; the star of mili-
tary glory rising like a meteor, like a meteor has fallen ; dis-
grace and disaster hang on the heels of conquest and renown;
victor and vanquished presently pass away to oblivion, and the
world goes on in its course with the loss only of so many lives,
and so much treasure."

A dinner was served in the Court House, then building, by
John Blaney Bates of Plymouth, who also served the supper
for the ball held in the same place. I have a letter addressed
to my grandfather in the summer of 1820, showing that an
invitation to Mr. Everett to deliver a poem after the oration
was contemplated, and that Mr. Everett said he would accept
such an invitation. But wise counsels prevailed, and it was
thought best to give to Mr. Webster alone the honors of the
day.

In 1822 Rev. Eliphalet Porter of Roxbury delivered an ad-
dress before the Pilgrim Society, but no record of the ceremon-
ies of the day have been preserved.

In 1824 Edw. Everett was the orator of the Pilgrim Society,
and on Wednesday, the 22d of December, a crowd of strangers
visited the town to hear the eloquent orator. Mr. Everett,
after graduating at Harvard in 181 1, was settled pastor of the
Brattle street church in 1813, to succeed Rev. Joseph Stevens
Buckminster, who died in 1812. In 1814 he was chosen
Eliot Professor of Greek at Harvard, and from 181 5 to 1819,
he spent in study and travel in Europe preparing for his duties
as Professor. In 1819 he returned and entered upon his office,
resigning in 1824, in which year he delivered an address before
the Phi Beta Society, and was chosen member of Congress.
His oration was a splendid effort, and I was told by Rev. Sam-
uel K. Lothrop, who was present, that it was repeatedly said
at the time that his oration came fully up to the Webster stand-
ard. But time failed to justify the comparison. Beauty of
imagery, and a grace of delivery, captivated for the hour, but
like the elusive tints of the rainbow, they were forgotten,
when the thunder and lightning which had preceded it were

OF AN OCTOGENARIAN. tf>l

recalled. After the oration, a dinner was served in Pilgrim
Hall, the cornerstone of which was laid on the first of
the previous September, and which was finished in time for
the celebration.

The celebration in 1829 was the first of which I have any
recollection. I was then seven years of age, but I remember
being carried up North street and along Main and Court streets
to see the illumination of the town on the evening before th